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An earthquake of 6.7 degrees occurred on Wednesday in Papua New Guinea, announced the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS), Reuters news agency notes online.

The earthquake occurred 89 kilometers north-east of Rabaul, on the island of New Britain in the east of the island.

The quake’s epicenter was registered at a depth of 499 kilometers.

There was no tsunami alert issued following the earthquake and the damages registered are yet not public.

The country is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean (in Melanesia), north of Australia and east of Indonesia. The island is split in two, Papua and Indonesia’s West Papua. The capital city is at Port Moresby.

Papua New Guinea has a tropical climate with monsoon and mountain influences. The main air currents are the northwest monsoon (wet) that occurs between December and March and the southeastern trade winds (dry) from May to October. The average daily temperature is 27 ° C, but in the mountains, the temperatures drop overnight at 4 ° C and rises at 32 °C during the day. The relative humidity is evenly high.

It still has an underdeveloped economy based on the mining industry, which is 1/3 of the GDP and 70% of exports, and on agriculture, directed mainly towards export. Products like coffee, cocoa, coconuts, tea, natural rubber, palm oil, sweet potatoes, yams, taro, and sugarcane are its main exports.

The country has the second biggest gold reserves after South Africa, along with silver, copper, natural gas, timber, and fishing.