Vanuatu's earthquake swarm is not finished. Two magnitude 5.7 tremors struck the Port-Olry area minutes apart on Monday afternoon Toronto time, hours after a shallow magnitude 6.0 earthquake — just 10 kilometres deep, about 186 kilometres offshore from Espiritu Santo island — opened the sequence at 07:49 UTC.
The U.S. Geological Survey issued a GREEN PAGER alert, signalling a low likelihood of casualties or damage, with maximum estimated intensity IV and roughly 2,000 people in the shaking area. Forecasters associated no tsunami threat with the quake, based on its location and the available data.
The sequence did not stop with the mainshock. Magnitude 5.3, 5.4 and 5.2 tremors followed within the first hour, a magnitude 5.4 struck mid-morning UTC, and two magnitude 5.7 events hit minutes apart on Monday afternoon Toronto time — all at the same shallow 10-kilometre depth in the Port-Olry area.
The affected area is sparsely populated and offshore, with critical infrastructure limited to ports, local airports and the inter-island and fishing transport links that connect Vanuatu's northern islands.
Vanuatu sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the Australian and Pacific plates converge — one of the most seismically active zones on Earth. Monday's mainshock was the largest earthquake recorded globally today, among 199 quakes tracked worldwide.
