Earthquake of 6.4 hits 500 km west of the Pacific island of Tonga

SINGAPORE, Aug 19 : An earthquake of 6 point 4 magnitude struck 500 km (310 miles) west of the Pacific island of Tonga today, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, but there were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage.
There was also no immediate tsunami warning.

In a 2006 Tonga earthquake occurred on 4 May at 04:26:35 local time with a moment magnitude of 8.0 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII .

A 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami took place on 29 September 2009 in the southern Pacific Ocean near the Tonga-Kermadec Ridge , an oceanic ridge in the south-west Pacific Ocean underlying the Tonga-Kermadec island arc.

The largest island, Tongatapu, on which the capital city of Nukuʻalofa is located, covers 257 square kilometres (99 sq mi). Geologically the Tongan islands are of two types: most have a limestone base formed from uplifted coral formations; others consist of limestone overlaying a volcanic base.

Tonga is a Polynesian kingdom of more than 170 South Pacific islands, many uninhabited, most lined in white beaches and coral reefs and covered with tropical rainforest.

Its 169 islands, 36 of them inhabited,^[1] are divided into three main groups – Vava’u, Ha’apai, and Tongatapu – and cover an 800-kilometre (500-mile)-long north-south line.

It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna(France) to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, Niue to the east, Kermadec (part of New Zealand) to the southwest, and New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the farther west.

Tonga became known in the West as the Friendly Islands because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773.

Humans have lived in Tonga for nearly 3,000 years, since settlement in late Lapita times