18 Mar 2020

5.8 earthquake near Tonga; no warnings issued

7:30 am on 18 March 2020
A map showing the epicentre of Wednesday morning's earthquake in the waters of Tonga's north.

A map showing the epicentre of Wednesday morning's earthquake in the waters of Tonga's north. Photo: US Geological Survey

A large earthquake struck in the ocean between Tonga and Samoa this morning.

The US Geological Survey says the 5-point-8 magnitude quake struck just after 5 o'clock, local time.

It struck 172km east of Niuatoputapu at a depth of 10 kilometres.

There are no initial reports of damage and no tsunami warning has been issued.