The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the tremor hit at a shallow depth of 35 kilometres in the Maluku Sea between the Sulawesi and Maluku island groups in the early morning.

The powerful earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula without warning on New Year’s Day shed light on the difficulty of evacuating residents around a nuclear power plant to safety.

A 5.5 earthquake has hit central Turkey and sent frightened residents into the streets, but Turkey's disaster response agency says no damage has been reported.

The gaping holes torn in a road to Mandalay by last year's devastating earthquake have been filled in, and the route in northern Myanmar partly resurfaced. "Even after a year, the tremor, the scenes and the feelings from that earthquake feel as if they happened only yesterday or the day before.

The most important fact about the San Andreas Fault is also the least satisfying one: scientists can measure rising risk, but they still cannot name the day a giant earthquake will begin. That gap between knowledge and certainty is why researchers focus on warning patterns instead of predictions.

A strong preliminary magnitude 7.3 earthquake has struck near Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean. The United States Geological Survey said the quake was at a depth of about 70 miles.

Public utility services were today slowly being restored in Luganville, according to a provincial disaster officer, Kensly Shem, who said no deaths or serious injuries had been reported yet, and that damage assessments were ongoing.

East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) said it expects to resume full operations on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line around April 20 in time to meet demand for the peak Golden Week travel season following the derailment of a 17-car bullet train in an earthquake last week.