Strong earthquake hits the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge, not felt

Strong earthquake hits the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge, not felt

2010-10-31 17:39:25 GMT+7 (ICT)

PACIFIC OCEAN (BNO NEWS) -- A strong earthquake struck the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge on early Saturday morning, seismologists said on Sunday.

The 6.4-magnitude earthquake at 5.18 a.m. local time (1518 GMT) on Saturday was centered on the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary located on the seafloor of the South Pacific Ocean, separating the Pacific Plate from the Antarctic Plate. It struck about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) below the seabed, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

With New Zealand about 3,480 kilometers (2,160 miles) away to the southeast, no one could have felt the earthquake. It was also not strong enough to generate a tsunami.

The USGS had earlier measured the strength of the earthquake at 5.8 on the Richter scale, but later significantly revised it upwards.

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