Massive quake strikes remote Macquarie Island in Antarctica
Pakistan Times Wire Service

STRASBOURG (Macquarie Island): A massive earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale struck the largely uninhabited area around Macquarie Island in Antarctica, south of New Zealand and Tasmania, French seismological officials said.

The quake hit at 14:58 GMT Thursday, the Earth Sciences Observatory in Strasbourg said in a statement.

The Magnitude

The Hong Kong Observatory separately estimated the earthquake's magnitude at 7.8 on the Richter scale, measured at 15:12 GMT. The observatory determined the epicentre to be over the seas north of Macquarie Island.

The Macquarie archipelago, an Australian territory some 1,500 kilometers (850 miles) southeast of Tasmania, is the only island group in the world composed entirely of oceanic crust and rocks from the mantle, deep below the earth's surface, according to an Australian government website.

The island group, with mountains rising to 400 meters (1,350 feet) above sea level, became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997 due in part to its unique natural beauty and in part to its diversity in fauna. Its colony of king penguins, numbering around 850,000, is one of the largest in the world.●