A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Papua New Guinea’s New Britain Island on Friday, initially triggering a tsunami warning for surrounding coastlines, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The shallow quake struck close to the coast, around 100 miles (162 km) southwest of Rabaul, a much more remote region than the country’s mountainous mainland highlands where a magnitude 7.5 tremor struck on Feb. 26, killing 100 people.
Incredibly 12 of the 31 major quakes this year have occurred in or around Papua New Guinea.
Today's major quakes were the 8th of March and brought the total to 31 in 2018, 14 more than the same time period of last year.
Of the 31 major quakes reported this year, 30 of them have occurred during coronal activity on the sun.
Solar wind flowing from the indicated coronal hole is brushing against Earth's magnetic field today.
