Ring of Fire ROCKED: 6.0 magnitude earthquake strikes Papua New Guinea
A STRONG earthquake has struck Papua New Guinea - putting the Ring of Fire on high alert once again. The quake measured 6.0 magnitude and hit at a depth of 10 km (6 miles), the US Geological Survey said.
Ring of Fire: Tectonic movements produce 90% earthquakes
It comes after a deadly quake struck the rugged New Guinea highlands, which was forced to declare an emergency.
Nearly 150,000 people remain in urgent need of emergency supplies as damaged roads and landslides have hampered the delivery of aid to isolated communities.
The quake destroyed or damaged the homes of around 7000 people, while 147,000 were in severe need of food, water and sanitation, the director of the International Red Cross in PNG, Udaya Regm has revealed.
Landslides have cut roads, preventing the delivery of aid to several places where it's most needed.
Mr Regmi said: "The challenge is road access, it's still not accessible to trucks and four-wheel drives.
"Big trucks cannot go there. It's one of the reasons the food is becoming less and less. There are no fears of starvation yet but we've not got the full picture."
Papua New Guinea (PNG) declared a state of emergency across the earthquake-hit region last week but the scale of the disaster will not be known until relief workers and authorities can complete their assessments in the area.
Villagers have been living on edge as they experience aftershocks after the initial temblor, which only started subsiding on Saturday.Julie Sakol a nurse at Mendi General Hospital said the aftershocks were slowly decreasing.She said: "It's coming every two hours now ... the movement of the ground is slowly going down."
Australian Sally Lloyd who is visiting PNG said villagers were terrified by the constant shaking.
She said: "It is terror. They think the end of the world is happening."
The report by the World Food Program for the United Nations two days after the 7.5 magnitude quake hit the Southern Highlands on February 26 estimated 465,000 people were exposed to the disaster of which 143,000 needed urgent humanitarian assistance and 64,000 were suffering from extreme food insecurity.
The Pacific Ring of Fire is the most geologically active area in the world with more than 90 per cent of earthquakes occurring here, as well as 22 or the 25 biggest volcanic eruptions in history.
The volatility on the Pacific Ring of Fire over the past two weeks has increased fears for the Big One: a major earthquake in a highly-populated area on the US west coast or in Japan.