MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Sub Antarctic seabed

An earthquake magnitude 7.1 struck Saturday in the vicinity of Macquarie Island, which lies about halfway between Australia and Antarctica and 2.000 kilometers south from the New Zealand capital Wellington, said the US Geological Survey.

The quake was located 120 kilometers south-southwest of Macquarie Island and ten kilometers below the seabed according to the USGS website. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert for areas within "a few hundred kilometers" of the quake zone which meant no threat to Pacific coastlines. Three hours after the quake there were no reports of casualties or damages. Macquarie is a "sub Antarctic" island with no population located in the Southern Ocean at 54 degrees, 30 minutes south and 158 degrees, 57 minutes east, according to the Australian government's Antarctic Division's website. The island inhabited only by scientists at a research station, is claimed as Australian territory. Macquarie sits in a zone where the Pacific Plate, the Indo- Australian Plate and the Antarctic Plate meet. These tectonic plates constantly shift, sometimes causing earthquakes, some of them producing tsunamis. Quakes of magnitude 5 or greater are considered depending on the depth they occur.