Image
© USGS
The U.S. Geological Survey says a powerful earthquake has shaken Papua New Guinea. The agency says the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 and struck Thursday about 20 miles (32 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor. It hit near the island province of New Britain, 295 miles (470 kilometers) northeast of the national capital Port Moresby.

From USGS:

Date-Time:
Thursday, December 02, 2010 at 03:12:10 UTC

Thursday, December 02, 2010 at 01:12:10 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
6.059°S, 149.851°E

Depth:
34.8 km (21.6 miles) set by location program

Region:
NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Distances:
40 km (25 miles) ENE of Kandrian, New Britain, PNG

65 km (40 miles) SSW of Kimbe, New Britain, PNG

475 km (295 miles) NE of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea

2400 km (1490 miles) N of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia

Location Uncertainty:
horizontal +/- 11.4 km (7.1 miles); depth fixed by location program

Parameters:
NST=328, Nph=361, Dmin=329.5 km, Rmss=1.24 sec, Gp= 18°,
M-type=centroid moment magnitude (Mw), Version=E

Source:
USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Event ID:
usc0000i8z