Quake strikes Vanuatu island

A strong earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck Vanuatu’s Erromango island in the Pacific Ocean today, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Reuters reports the quake struck the center of the island, Vanuatu’s fourth largest, at 7:09 a.m and was fairly deep at 200km, which would have dampened its effect.

Erromango has a population of just under 2000 people.

The Vanuatu archipelago, east of Australia in the Pacific Ocean, is in the so-called Ring of Fire and is prone to earthquakes.