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 New Hebrides Trench is an oceanic trench which extends to over deep in the Southern Pacific Ocean. It lies to the northeast of New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands, to the southwest of Vanuatu, east of Australia, and south of Papua New Guin ...

, the convergent boundary of the Australian and

Pacific Plate The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate. The plate first came into existence 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and Iza ...

s. 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 oceanic trench. While much of the island arc experiences intermediate-depth earthquakes along a Wadati–Benioff zone that dips steeply at 70°, the area adjacent to the

d'Entrecasteaux Ridge The d'Entrecasteaux () Ridge (DER) is a double oceanic ridge in the south-west Pacific Ocean, north of New Caledonia and west of Vanuatu Islands. It forms the northern extension of the New Caledonia–Loyalty Islands arc, and is now actively su ...

does not. There is a corresponding gap in seismicity that occurs below where it intrudes into the subduction zone from the west. According to the NUVEL-1 global relative plate motion model, convergence is occurring at roughly per year. The uncertainty, which also affects the Tonga arc, is due to the influence of

spreading Spread may refer to: Places * Spread, West Virginia Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Spread'' (film), a 2009 film. * ''$pread'', a quarterly magazine by and for sex workers * "Spread", a song by OutKast from their 2003 album '' Speakerboxxx ...

at the

North Fiji Basin The North Fiji Basin (NFB) is an oceanic basin west of Fiji in the south-west Pacific Ocean. It is an actively spreading back-arc basin delimited by the Fiji islands to the east, the inactive Vitiaz Trench to the north, the Vanuatu/ New Hebrid ...

. Of the 58 M7 or greater events that occurred between 1909 and 2001, few were studied.

Earthquakes

References

Sources *

External links

Predicting Earthquake Hazard in VanuatuSolomon & Vanuatu Islands—Earthquakes & Tectonic Setting
– IRIS Consortium {{DEFAULTSORT:List of earthquakes in Vanuatu Vanuatu

Earthquakes An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

Earthquakes in Vanuatu

Tectonic setting

Earthquakes

See also

References

External links