LIMA, March 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Peru issued a tsunami warning for its coast but no evacuation order Thursday, after a cluster of powerful South Pacific earthquakes.
The country’s National Emergency Operations Center reported “a tsunami
alert on the Peruvian coast,” with the arrival of a wave train “estimated
during the early morning of March 5.”
The largest in the cluster of quakes struck around 1,000 kilometers off the
New Zealand coast at 1928 GMT, the US Geological Survey said.
The 8.1-magnitude quake followed earlier tremors in the same region
measuring 7.4 and 7.3, in an unusually strong cluster even for the Pacific
ring of fire, where the Earth’s tectonic plates collide.
Peru’s emergency center said a “tsunami alert is issued after a major
earthquake so that the population can prepare to evacuate to safe higher
ground if so determined by the authorities. — NNN-AGENCIES