Potential tsunami risk from 7.0 earthquake in New Zealand

New Zealand is located in Oceania.

It struck the Kermadec Islands early Thursday morning (local time).

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the Kermadec Islands at 12:56 am on Thursday (local time).an archipelago located in the north of New Zealandto which the authorities responded by issuing a tsunami risk alert.

The tremor occurred 980 kilometers from Ohonua, in Tonga, and 998 kilometers from the capital of that island country, Nuku’alofa.

According to data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which measures seismic activity around the world, the telluric movement was located at a sea depth of 22 kilometers.

For his part, the tsunami warning system of the US National Weather Service issued a warning about the potential risk of tsunami for the “coasts located up to 300 kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquake” and forecasts waves “less than 0.3 meters above the tidal level.”

(Keep reading: This is how you can activate the earthquake alert on your cell phone).

The Kermadec Islands, which lie between New Zealand and Tonga, are unpopulated, except for the staff at the permanently installed base on Raoul Island, which has a weather and radio station.

New Zealand sits on the fault line between the Pacific and Oceanic tectonic plates and records some 14,000 earthquakes each year.of which between 100 and 150 are powerful enough to be perceived.