A magnitude 5.7 earthquake at a depth of 224km rattled Tongatapu this morning Sunday 5.
Tonga Met Services said it “is not likely to pose any tsunami threat to affect Tonga today. No action is required”.
The tremor came six days after a 5.5 earthquake was felt in Nuku’alofa on Sunday 29.
Reports on Facebook showed this morning’s quake was felt in central Nuku’alofa.
A repatriate at the Tanoa Hotel quarantine facility told Kaniva News it took about a minute before it stopped.
There were reports of the quake on social media by the Ha’apai residents.
Some people on Facebook described it as accelerating and shocking, while others described it as a long shake.
The news comes after four people were killed and hundreds of homes were destroyed after a tsunami was generated by the massive January eruption.
Meanwhile, small-scale eruptions were expected following the volcanic eruption and tsunami.
Four months on, new scientific evidence was helping to paint a clearer picture of how widespread the damage was and the chances of another eruption, University of Auckland Volcanologist Shane Cronin was reported by RNZ as saying.
While there would not be another large-scale event anytime soon, there would be “follow-ups”.
“After such a fundamental change and an enormous eruption, we wouldn’t expect there to be an ongoing big event but we would expect there to be sort of follow ups or small scale eruptions because there’s always a bit of magma left behind and there’s always a little bit of residual heat.”
