By Madhuri Dey
Oct 8, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Vanuatu Islands and Santa Cruz islands in Pacific Ocean were hit by series of earthquakes on 7 October at local time 9:03 a.m.

The magnitude of the first quake was recorded 7.8. Warning Center for Pacific Tsunami after this earthquake issued tsunami alert for 11 territories and countries. Kiribati, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Nauru, New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea are some of the places for which tsunami alert was issued. For the severity of the earthquake, a tsunami watch has come into effect for New Zealand and Australia. Tsunami watch declared for coast region of north Queensland was canceled later as the Tsunami effect was not supposed to cross the Great Barrier Reef.

The first quake hit at Vanuatu Islands and Santa Cruz islands was followed by several aftershocks which were equally strong. Fifteen minutes after the first shock, another earthquake hit of 7.7 magnitude with an aftershock was recorded at 9:18 a.m in the islands. Almost after an hour, at 10:13 a.m, a quake of 7.3 magnitude hit the place. According to the Geological Survey of the United States, the first hit on Santa Cruz islands was felt almost at 260 km from south of Lata at 35 km depth.They also stated that first quake hit of Vanuatu Islands was felt at 295 km north-northwest from the Vanuatu Islands. Though the earthquake was severe yet the officials of Vanuatu did not report any damage or injury immediately.

The Pacific region experienced series of earthquakes in the past few weeks. Earthquake of Vanuatu and Santa Cruz Islands added one more to the list.. Sumatran earthquake which had already claimed the life of 609 people was considered as most devastating earthquakes so far.