Second earthquake in eleven days hits New Britain, Papua New Guinea

August 15, 2010 A second powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.3 has struck the island of in the  region around Papua New Guinea, just 11 days after a damaging 7.0 quake left the western side of the island without power and communications for almost three days.

The epicenter of the quake, reported by the to have struck at a depth of 197.2km (119.2 miles), was just 149 km (93 miles) from the main town on New Britain,.

It hit at 1.10AM local time, Monday 16 August (15:09 UTC, Sunday 15 August).

There are no initial reports at time of press of casualties or damage, and no word at this time from the of any impending threat of a tsunami.