A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.3 struck near New Zealand's sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands last night.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Honolulu, Hawaii, issued a tsunami information notice but said no destructive widespread tsunami threat existed based on historical data.
New Zealand's Civil Defence authorities said they would not be putting out a tsunami alert, but would monitor the situation. Spokeswoman Dr Jo Horrocks told NZPA previous earthquakes of the same size in the same area had not produced tsunamis. AP quoted Invercargill police Senior Sergeant Brock Davis saying that three hours after the Hawaiian centre's notice he had not received any word of a tsunami reaching southern New Zealand.
The quake was recorded at 6.23pm NZ time about 12km below the earth's surface according to GNS Science, Lower Hutt. The agency put the epicentre at 220km northwest of the uninhabited Auckland Islands which are 475km southwest of Invercargill. (Yahoo Xtra News)