New Guinea/Solomon Is

SOME MAJOR EARTHQUAKES OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA / IRIAN JAYA/SOLOMON IS

DATE	LAT	LONG	MAG	REGION	REMARKS
31 Oct 1970	4.926S	145.467	7.0	Madang	17:53 GMT extensive damage
20 Jul 1975	6.59S	155.054	7.9	Bougainville	14:37 GMT generated local tsunami
25 Jun1976	4.6S	140.1	7.1	Irian Jaya	5000- 9000 killed
09 Mar 1979	9.56S	147.96	6.2	PNG	01:26 GMT
16 Oct 1987	6.266S	149.060	7.4	West New Britian	20:48 GMT extensive landslides
17 Feb 1996	0.94S	136.95	8.1	Irian Jaya	107 killed, 5 - 7 m tsunami
17 Jul 1998	2.96S	141.9E	7.0	Northern PNG	2185 killed, almost all by 10 m tsunami
05 Apr 1999	5.591S	149.568	7.4	West New Britain	11:08 GMT 110 km NE of Kandrian
16 Nov 2000	3.97S	152.18E	8.2	New Ireland	3 killed, extensive damage, 3 m tsunami. Mag 7.8 event 3 hours later
17 Nov 2000	5.52S	151.80E	8.0	New Britain	no damage reports?
09 Sep 2002	3.30S	142.95E	7.6	Northern PNG	4 killed, 1.5 m tsunami
10 Oct 2002	1.75S	134.26E	7.6	Irian Jaya	8 killed, 3+ m tsunami
09 Sep 2005	4.54S	153.74	7.7	New Ireland	no reported damage
17 Oct 2006			6.7	West New Britain	11:25 am LT no damage reported
01 Apr 2007	8.48S	156.98E	8.1	Solomon Is	at 25 killed in tsunami

Map of well -located earthquakes in PNG

Map by the Port Moresby Geophysical Observatory

SEISMICITY OF PNG - Solomon Is Region, Jan 2002 - Dec 2005 ( Mag 6 & above)

pale pink - mag 6.0 - 6.9

dark pink - Mag 7.0 and above

Epicentral data from CNSS catalogue, Bathymetric data from Geoscience Australia.

NEW GUINEA

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred off the island of New Ireland on 09 Sept 2005

event location - 4.54 degrees south, 153.45 degrees east, depth 91 km

Below - map of earthquakes in New Guinea region for 12 months to 18 Sep 2005 - map from IRIS website

Below - Tectonic map from Pegler et al, JGI, (1995,) after Cooper & Taylor, (1987)

Below - Topographic and bathymetric data, from National Geophysical Data Center website

Earthquakes in New Guinea region Jan 1990 - Jan1995, and less than 100 km depth - map from IRIS website

Earthquakes in New Ireland region since 1990, mag 4.5 and above, and less than 100 km depth - map from IRIS website