New Delhi, 11 February (H.S.): A robust earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale jolted the South Pacific Ocean today on Wedneaday, at precisely 02:14:53 IST, originating at coordinates 21.15° S latitude and 178.28° W longitude, with an profound depth of 515 kilometers, as reported by India's National Center for Seismology.

The tremor, detected amidst the volatile circum-Pacific seismic belt—infamously dubbed the Ring of Fire—poses negligible surface threat owing to its profound epicenter, encompassing 81 percent of Earth's major quakes along 40,000 kilometers of subduction zones where oceanic plates plunge beneath continental counterparts, birthing cataclysmic events like the 1960 M9.5 Valdivia and 1964 M9.2 Alaska ruptures.

Spanning the Pacific rim from South America through Asia to New Zealand—forged over 115 million years via evolving subduction—this zone accounts for 90 percent of global quakes, with 500,000 annually detectable, 100,000 felt, and 100 destructive; the NCS urged vigilance via its BhooKamp app amid this routine geophysical convulsion.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar