Strong shallow earthquake below the rain-forest of Eastern Papua New Guinea
Last update: February 15, 2012 at 4:54 pm by By Armand Vervaeck and James Daniell
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 5.8
UTC Time : Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 14:07:51 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 12:07:51 AM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 10.1 km
Geo-location(s) :
88 km (54 miles) S of Lae, New Guinea, PNG
137 km (85 miles) ENE of Kerema, New Guinea, PNG
216 km (134 miles) N of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea
Earthquake overview : A strong but shallow and thus moderately dangerous earthquake occurred just after midnight inland Eastern Papua New Guinea.
Strong moderately dangerous earthquake.
1,000 people will experience a very strong shaking and 33,000 people a strong shaking. The main reason for this high impact is the very shallow hypocenter. PNG is however well prepared for very strong to even massive earthquakes. Since 1000ths of years, the islands are regularly shuddered by massive earthquakes. The earthquake’s epicenter is below the rain forest where only primitive villages are located. These villages have NO brick or concrete houses which make them less vulnerable for destruction.
The main dangers during these earthquakes are landslides and mining accidents.
Emergency services will normally not react to this kind of earthquakes. Additionally, as they have no helicopters and as the hills are mostly saturated by clouds, they have to walk to the epicenter areas via normal walking trails. They often need many days to reach the epicenter area.
These are the facts of life at PNG. We would be very surprised if a report would ever be published on this earthquake by the PNG authorities or by the local PNG press.
Update : nearest populated place to the epicenter is : Were Were (18km).
The closest civilian airport is Sim (18km).
for more information and updates, go to: http://earthquake-report.com/2012/02/15/strong-shallow-earthquake-below-the-rainforest-of-eastern-papua-new-guinea/