Suva, August 19: A massive earthquake of 8.2-magnitude earthquake hit Fiji islands on Sunday morning, the US Geological Survey informed. According to reports, the earthquake was too deep to generate a tsunami and there were no immediate reports of damage. "The tremor hit at 12:19 pm (0019 GMT) local time 361 kilometres (224 miles) east of the Pacific nation's capital Suva, at a depth of 559 kilometres", the US seismologists said.

The quake occurred in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a region of frequent seismic activity due to collisions between continental plates.  The epicentre was 167 miles (270 kilometres) east of  Levuka on Fiji's Ovalau Island and 275 miles (443 kilometres) west of Neiafu in Tonga, a town with a population of around 6,000 people.

Reports inform that the quake was centred about 281 kilometres north of Ndoi Island with a depth of 559.6 kilometres.  "An earthquake of Magnitude 8.0, Occurred on:19-08-2018, 05:49:38 IST, Lat:18.2 S & Long: 178.0 W, Depth: 586 Km, Region", the Indian Meteorological Department tweeted. As per reports, the quake hit at a depth of 347.7 miles (559.57 kilometres) and was initially reported as magnitude 8.0 before being revised up to 8.2 by the USGC.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 19, 2018 09:07 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).