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Quake Sparks Tsunami Warnings

After a magnitude 8.0 earthquake shook the South Pacific nation of Tonga on May 3, and the U.S. Geological Survey said later that tsunami warnings were issued for Fiji and New Zealand. The geological center stressed that "it is not known that a tsunami was generated" by the quake, adding that, "This warning is based only on the earthquake evaluation."

Officials in both Tonga and on the island of Fiji, to the west, say there were no immediate reports of damage or a tsunami. Meanwhile, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says it was not known whether the quake generated a potentially deadly giant wave. It issued alerts for the islands of Tonga, Niue, American Samoa, Samoa, Fiji, and Wallis-Futuna.

According to the report, Tonga ? a 170-island archipelago about halfway between Australia and Tahiti ? has a population of about 108,000 and an economy dependent on pumpkin and vanilla exports, fishing, foreign aid and remittances from Tongans abroad. Much of southeast Asia is still dealing with the effects of massive tsunamis which occurred almost a year and a half ago.