A powerful magnitude 7.9 earthquake has struck deep off Papua New Guinea, causing damage and blackouts but no tsunami hours after an alert for nearby islands.
The United States Geological Survey downgraded the Sunday afternoon quake from an initial measurement of magnitude 8. It struck some 47km west of Arawa on the north coast of Bougainville Island at a depth of 154km, the USGS reported.
No casualties have been reported. But there was damage in parts of central Bougainville and the major town of Arawa, Aloysius Laukai, manager of New Dawn FM Bougainville radio station, said in an email.
The provincial capital of Buka was blacked out and residents of the southern town of Buin were moved to higher ground as a precaution against a potential tsunami, Laukai said.
All tsunami warnings were later lifted.
The greatest tsunami threat had been to Bougainville and that threat had passed without any report of a tsunami, said Chris McKee, assistant director at PNG's Geophysical Observatory Office in Port Moresby.
"I suspect that because of the great depth of the earthquake, there was probably no significant tsunami," McKee said.
The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre earlier said there was no threat to Australia, and New Zealand confirmed there was no danger to its coastlines.
Bougainville Island is one of the islands that make up the Autonomous Region of Bougainville within PNG, which is home to around 300,000 people.
