Undersea quake jolts area off Papua New Guinea

SYDNEY - An undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 jolted an area off the coast of Papua New Guinea early today, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The survey's website said the epicentre was off the New Britain area of the country .

The survey, which later revised its original magnitude of 6.8, said it occurred at 00:20 on Monday (3.20 am NZ).

Geophysicist Don Blakeman of the USGS National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, told Reuters by phone the quake occurred "in the crust of the ocean, not on land".

He said it was located 250km south-southwest of Taron, on the island of New Ireland. There were no reports of damage and no reports of tsunami warnings.

- REUTERS