The quake rattled an area 60 km south-west of the city of Rabaul which was abandoned in 1994 after two simultaneous volcanoes erupted nearby burying the town in ash.   

The region around the island of New Britain is one of the most seismically active in the world, and Tuesday's earthquake at the West end of the island follows the volcanic eruption of Ritter Island at the east end of New Britain last week.  A subsequent tsunami after the Ritter island explosion  swept a number of coastal village homes into the sea on nearby Umboi Island.

The U-S Geological Survey reports the epicenter of the latest earthquake was 128 kilometers beneath the ground.