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Quake hits off New Zealand, no damage

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-05 18:13

SYDNEY：A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the south coast of New Zealand on Wednesday, but there were no reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued.

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The United States Geological Survey said the quake was centred 116 miles (186 km) west northwest of the town of Invercargill, with a depth of 6.5 miles.

An Invercargill police spokesman said the quake was barely noticed and there were no reports of damage. New Zealand's seismology bureau said the quake measured 5.9, below its threshhold for a tsunami warning. It said it did not expect any property damage due to the remoteness of the area.

Geoscience Australia seismologist David Jepson said the quake measured 6.2 in magnitude, and struck at 0831 GMT just offshore of New Zealand's Fiordland National Park region in the same area as a 7.9 magnitude quake on July 15.

"This event is basically the earth responding from that previous large event, so it is an aftershock of the large event," he said.

New Zealand is located in a ring of volcanic arcs and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin known as the Ring of Fire, a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.