A series of large quakes has hit the area near Vanuatu.

Here is a snapshot of the activity tracked on my homepage [ LINK ]. There have been big quakes near there for some time, but this is cluster of very large events:

M 5.0 — Vanuatu
M 6.1 — Vanuatu
M 5.2 — Vanuatu
M 5.7 — Vanuatu
M 5.4 — Vanuatu
M 6.0 — Vanuatu
M 5.1 — Vanuatu
M 5.1 — Vanuatu
M 5.2 — Vanuatu
M 5.5 — Vanuatu
M 5.0 — Vanuatu
M 5.3 — Vanuatu
M 7.1 — Vanuatu
M 5.1 — Vanuatu

It would appear that there is a some significant seismic activity in that region. Other areas like New Zealand and the seemingly always active Papua New Guinea are also seeing events.

M 5.0 — Kermadec Islands, New Zealand
M 5.4 — Kermadec Islands, New Zealand
M 5.4 — Kermadec Islands, New Zealand
M 5.2 — Kermadec Islands, New Zealand

M 5.5 — New Britain region, Papua New Guinea
M 5.0 — New Ireland region, Papua New Guinea
M 5.4 — New Britain region, Papua New Guinea
M 5.1 — New Britain region, Papua New Guinea
M 5.3 — Papua, Indonesia

The largest of the recent events [ LINK ] happened Thursday, February 02, 2012 at 13:34:40 UTC.

As illustrated in this clipping from the USGS Map for the event, there has been a lot of large quake activity in the last 7 days.

Fortunately, despite the area having structures vulnerable to shaking damage, the estimated threat to population due to distance is virtually nil [ LINK ]. It’s estimated less that there was a 30% chance of any fatality, and a 4% chance of more than 30.

Epicenter for the quakes appears to be on a submarine ridge between two island chains. A very nice nursery for a tsunami, should there be significant under sea land movement from a large event.

As always, I continue to watch worldwide seismic events on my home page: [ LINK ].

UPDATE: – 4-FEB-2012 21:20

More activity near the epicenter of that large quake of Vanuatu… these in just the last few hours:

M 5.0 — Vanuatu
M 6.1 — Vanuatu
M 5.2 — Vanuatu