Earthquakes In Vanuatu
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Earthquakes In Vanuatu
Earthquakes in Vanuatu are frequent and are sometimes accompanied by tsunami, though these events are not often destructive. The archipelago, which was formerly known as New Hebrides, lies atop a complex and active plate boundary in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Overall, the population in this region resides in structures that are highly vulnerable to earthquake shaking, though some resistant structures exist. Most buildings in Vanuatu are constructed with lumber. Tectonic setting The primary tectonic feature of the island chain is the New Hebrides Trench, the convergent boundary between the Australian and Pacific plates. Along the Wadati–Benioff zone, earthquake activity has been observed as shallow, intermediate, and deep-focus events at depths of up to . Volcanic activity is also present along this north-northwest trending and northeast- dipping subduction zone. While much of the island arc experiences intermediate-depth earthquakes along a Wadati–Benioff zone that di ...
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New Hebrides
New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium () and named after the Hebrides in Scotland, was the colonial name for the island group in the South Pacific Ocean that is now Vanuatu. Native people had inhabited the islands for three thousand years before the first Europeans arrived in 1606 from a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós. The islands were named by Captain James Cook in 1774 and subsequently colonised by both the British and the French. The two countries eventually signed an agreement making the islands an Anglo-French condominium that provided for joint sovereignty over the archipelago with two parallel administrations, one British, one French. In some respects, that divide continued even after independence, with schools teaching in either one language or the other. The condominium lasted from 1906 until 1980, when New Hebrides gained its independence as the Republic of Vanuatu. Politics and economy The New Hebrides ...
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Efate
Efate (), also known as Île Vate (), is an island in the Pacific Ocean which is part of the Shefa Province in Vanuatu. Geography It is the most populous (approx. 66,000) island in Vanuatu. Efate's land area of makes it Vanuatu's third largest island. Its geological past was heavily volcanic, meaning that a lava shelf surrounds much of the island. Most inhabitants of Efate live in Port Vila, the national capital. Its highest mountain is Mount McDonald with a height of . History Captain James Cook named it Sandwich Island "in honour of my noble patron, the Earl of Sandwich" on his 1774 voyage on . Coconut trees were planted on Efate in the mid-1800s. During World War II, Efate served an important role as a United States military base. On March 13, 2015, Port Vila, Vanuatu, Port Vila, the island's largest human settlement and the capital of Vanuatu, bore extensive damage from Cyclone Pam. In December 2024, 2024 Port Vila earthquake, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake reportedly ...
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2002 Port Vila Earthquake
The 2002 Port Vila earthquake occurred in the early dawn of 3 January 2002, 4:22 a.m. local time ( UTC+11) northwest of Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu. It had a magnitude of 7.2 and a maximum intensity of X (''Extreme'') west of the island on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale. There are no exact estimates on the number of injured individuals, but the majority of accounts say there were "several" amounts of injured civilians. the event also caused a minor tsunami of about 0.4–0.8 m just 11 minutes after the quake. Tectonic setting The tremor was caused by the convergence of the Australian plate and the New Hebrides microplate. Different rates of convergence are present in different regions, in the southern Tanna regions the relative movement is oriented at around N244 ±4 and has a uniform rate of 11.7±0.8 cm/yr. The rate in Efaté, near the epicenter, was at around 0.3±0.9 cm/yr, oriented N242 ±4. Both azimuths very well compare with slip vectors ...
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Sanma Province
Sanma is a province located in the Northern part of the nation of Vanuatu, occupying the nation's largest island, Espiritu Santo, which is located approximately 2,500 km northeast of Sydney, Australia. The name Sanma is derived from the initial letters of the main islands of (Espiritu) SANto and MA lo. Population It has a population of 45,8602009 Census Summary release final
- Government of Vanuatu and an area of 4,248 km2. The provincial capital is
Luganville Luganville is the second largest city in Vanuatu after the capital Port Vila; it is located on the island of Espiritu Santo and has a population of 18,062 as of the ...
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Torba Province
Torba (or ''TorBa'') is the northernmost and least populous Provinces of Vanuatu, province of Vanuatu. It consists of the Banks Islands, Vanuatu, Banks Islands and the Torres Islands. The province's name is derived from the initial letters of "''TORres''" and "''BAnks''". Population The province has a population of 9,359 and an area of . Its capital is Sola, Vanuatu, Sola on Vanua Lava. Islands These are the main islands of Torba Province, excluding smaller and uninhabited islets. ;Banks Islands ;Torres Islands Languages The Torba province has Torres–Banks languages, seventeen languages, which are all Oceanic languages, Oceanic. From north to south, they are: Hiw language, Hiw, Lo-Toga language, Lo-Toga, Lehali language, Lehali, Löyöp language, Löyöp, Volow language, Volow, Mwotlap language, Mwotlap, Lemerig language, Lemerig, Vera'a language, Vera'a, Vurës language, Vurës, Mwesen language, Mwesen, Mota language, Mota, Nume language, Nume, Dorig language, Dorig, ...
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2009 Vanuatu Earthquakes
The 2009 Vanuatu earthquakes were three earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 7.4 to 7.8, constituting some of the largest earthquakes in Vanuatu's history. Tectonic Setting The Vanuatu earthquakes of October 7, 2009: M 7.7, Vanuatu, 22:03:14; M 7.8 Santa Cruz Islands, 22:18:51 UTC; and M 7.4, Vanuatu, 23:13:48; all occurred as a result of shallow reverse faulting on or near the plate boundary interface between the Indo-Australian Plate and Pacific Plates. In the region of these earthquakes, the Indo-Australian Plate moves to the east-northeast with respect to the Pacific Plate at a velocity of about 91 mm/yr. The Indo-Australian Plate thrusts under the Pacific Plate at the New Hebrides Trench and dips to the east-northeast. The locations, depths, and focal mechanism solutions for the October 7th events are all consistent with them resulting from reverse faulting associated with subduction along the Australia-Pacific Plate boundary. The 7.8 earthquake of October 7, 2009 ...
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The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia and claims to be the most widely read masthead in the country. It is considered a newspaper of record for Australia. The newspaper is published in Compact (newspaper), compact print form from Monday to Saturday as ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' and on Sunday as its sister newspaper, ''The Sun-Herald'' and digitally as an Website, online site and Mobile app, app, seven days a week. The print edition of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' is available for purchase from many retail outlets throughout the Sydney metropolitan area, most parts of regional New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South East Queensland. Overview ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' publishes a variety of supplements, including ...
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Shefa Province
Shefa is one of the six provinces of Vanuatu, located in the center of the country and including the islands of Epi (island), Epi and Efate and the Shepherd Islands. The province's name is derived from the initial letters of SHepherd and EFAte. It has a population of 78,723 people and an area of . Its capital is Port Vila, which is also the capital of the nation. History In the 1860s, Havanna Harbour, north Efate, was the centre of development in Shefa, with cotton plantations the focus. With dwindling prices for cotton, agricultural administrators turned to maize and coffee, before settling mainly with coconuts and cattle which are the main agricultural products today. The French and British continued to have conflicting interests in Vanuatu (then known as New Hebrides) and decided upon a Joint Naval Commission, or Condominium, in 1887, with the Joint Court opened in 1910, it is still used today. Shefa Province was a strategic location during World War II for the mainly American ...
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National Geophysical Data Center
The United States National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) provided scientific stewardship, products and services for geophysical data describing the solid earth, marine, and solar-terrestrial environment, as well as earth observations from space. It was established in 1965 as part of the new Environmental Science Services Administration until that organization became the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1970. In 2015, NGDC was merged with the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Location and controlling bodies Since 1972 the NGDC was located in Boulder, Colorado as a part of the US Department of Commerce (USDOC), National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS). Data holdings NGDC's data holdings contained more than 300 digital and analog databases, with over 3 ...
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Tafea Province
Tafea is the southernmost of the six provinces of Vanuatu. The name is an acronym for the five main islands that make up the province: Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna, Erromango and Aniwa. History Unlike the other provinces of Vanuatu, the territorial integrity of this administrative unit has been unchanged since the times of the Condominium, when it was called ''Southern District'', or ''Tanna'' after the main island. Only the capital moved from Lenakel to nearby Isangel, less than two kilometers more southeast. A secessionist movement began in the 1970s, and the Nation of Tanna was proclaimed on 24 March 1974. While the British were more open to allowing its holdings in Vanuatu independence, it was opposed by the French colonists and finally suppressed by the Anglo-French Condominium authorities on 29 June 1974. In 1980, there was another attempt to secede, declaring the Tafea Nation on 1 January 1980, its name coming from the initials of the five islands that were to be part of ...
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Pentecost Island
Pentecost is one of the 83 islands that make up the Oceania, South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. It lies due north of capital Port Vila. Pentecost is known as in French language, French and in Bislama. The island was known in its native languages by names such as ''Vanu Aroaroa'', although these names are not in common use today. Pentecost has also been referred to as ''Raga'' or ''Araga'', a tribal name that originated in the north but is now widely applied to the whole island. In old sources, it is occasionally referred to as Whitsuntide Island. Geography Pentecost is a lush, mountainous island which stretches north to south over some . It has an area of . The mountain range, of which the highest is Mount Vulmat (), marks the dividing line between the humid, rainy eastern coast and the more temperate western coast. The coastal plains, cross-cut by small torrents, are generally very green and ideally suited for plantations and livestock. The climate on Pentecost is humid ...
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Radio New Zealand
Radio New Zealand (), commonly known as RNZ or Radio NZ, is a New Zealand public service broadcaster and Crown entity. Established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995, it operates news and current affairs station, RNZ National, and a classical music and jazz station, RNZ Concert, with full government funding from NZ On Air. Since 2014, the organisation's focus has been to transform from a radio broadcaster to a multimedia outlet, increasing its production of digital content in audio, video, and written forms, utilising rnz.co.nz and the RNZ app. The organisation plays a central role in New Zealand public broadcasting. The New Zealand Parliament fully funds its AM network, used in part for the broadcast of parliamentary proceedings. RNZ has a statutory role under the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002 to act as a "lifeline utility" in emergencies. It is also responsible for an international service, RNZ Pacific, which broadcasts to the South Pacific in both ...
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