Mijts Blog

As I have mentioned before, we regularly have gurias (earthquakes) here – but they are relatively minor and you get used to a gentle rocking of your chair or bed. We had one about 20 minutes ago that seemed to last longer than usual and when the whole house started to shake sideways so much that it creaked, I must admit I ran downstairs and clear of the house and I felt just a little bit scared. This has only happened once before and over a year ago.

It was probably over before I even got clear of the house but I just can’t ignore those creaking noises and a rocking house! Needless to say none of the neighbours were running out and most of the nationals continued to just sit around and have a good laugh at me. I felt a bit better when I phoned Nick and he told me that all staff vacated their office!

When I looked up the earthquake website and found some data, I realised it was a reasonably strong tremor!

Earthquake Details
Magnitude
6.4 (Preliminary magnitude — update expected within 15 minutes)

Date-Time
• Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 05:32:30 UTC
• Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 03:32:30 PM at epicenter
Location
5.810°S, 151.390°E
Depth
56 km (34.8 miles) set by location program
Region
NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Distances
• 198 km (123 miles) SSW (206°) from Rabaul, New Britain, PNG
• 211 km (131 miles) ENE (77°) from Kandrian, New Britain, PNG
• 366 km (228 miles) S (170°) from Kavieng, New Ireland, PNG
• 496 km (308 miles) ENE (78°) from Lae, New Guinea, PNG
• 615 km (382 miles) NE (49°) from PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea

data from http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/