The December 17th at hours 2:47 (Italian time) a violent earthquake hit the coasts of Port Vilathe largest city of Vanuatu, in the Western Pacific archipelago. The earthquake had an epicenter in the sea at a depth of just 32km – therefore rather superficial – and it provoked huge damage across the entire island. As if this wasn’t enough, a few hours later the same archipelago was hit by one second shock, this time of magnitude 5.5, which has definitively brought an already hard-hit country to its knees.
The two tremors interrupted the communication linesmaking it complex to quantify the actual severity of the situation. However, numerous videos are already starting to circulate on social media in which destroyed buildings, torn up roads and debris can clearly be seen everywhere. From what has emerged, it seems that at least at the moment they have been confirmed 14 victims, to which they must be added hundreds injured and dispersed. Currently the Government of Vanuatu has declared that in the most affected area they live at least 80 thousand people23 thousand of whom are already in urgent need of assistance.
Furthermore, as reported by the country’s police, it was declared that state of emergency for seven daysso as to allow the authorities to proceed with all rescue and rescue operations.
But from a geological point of view, what caused this violent earthquake?
As also confirmed by the USGS image below, Vanuatu is an area of subduction between the Pacific plate and that Australian. As often happens in this type of tectonic context, the mutual sliding between the two blocks can give rise to violent earthquakes, as also confirmed by the earthquake of magnitude 8.2 of 1907 and that of magnitude 8.0 from 1976.
