Tsunami alert wound back after large quake hits off Vanuatu

Source: Reuters

Officials wound back an initial tsunami threat issued after a large earthquake struck off the coast of the South Pacific islands of Vanuatu on Sunday.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the danger had largely passed and canceled an earlier warning of a possible tsunami as a result of the quake, which was initially measured at a magnitude of 7.2 but later revised down to 6.9.

The quake was also deemed to be deeper that first thought - 33 kilometers (21 miles) as opposed to 10 kms, Kanoa Koyanagi, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii told Reuters.

Koyanagi said experts expected waves of no larger than 30 centimeters, well below tsunami levels, from the quake which struck 151 km north northwest of Vanuatu's Santo island.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-vanuatu-quake-idUSKCN0X006W