Hagatna: An undersea earthquake off Guam with a preliminary magnitude of 6.7 shook the US territory this morning, the US Geological Survey said.

There were no reports of damage or injuries. A magnitude-6 earthquake can cause severe damage. The quake failed to generate any destructive, widespread tsunami, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu.

The quake struck at 7:51 am (local time) at a depth of 87.54 kilometres, the survey said in a statement. It was centred 201.16 kilometres west-southwest of Hagatna, Guam, and 402.32 kilometres southwest of Saipan in the neighbouring Northern Mariana Islands, it said.

Kim Alba, lifestyle editor at the Pacific Daily News, said that the quake jolted her house and woke her up, but that the shaking was apparently the extent of its impact on the island.

A spokesman for Guam's Andersen Air Force Base, Brian Bahret, said there were no reports of damage there. And Sarrah Iguel, a dispatch operator for Civil Defence in the Marianas, said no one called to report damage.

Guam is west of the international date line, about 5,954 kilometres southwest of Hawaii.
Source : PTI