Jan 30, 2:07 AM EST

*Earthquake Rocks Australian Island*

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of
6.7 rocked the coast of Australia's remote Macquarie Island Tuesday, the
U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake struck at 2:54 p.m. local time and was centered six miles
below the seabed.

Stuart Koyanagi, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center at
Ewa Beach, Hawaii, said the quake was unlikely to generate a major
Pacific-wide tsunami.

"Normally at this magnitude we don't expect any kind of destructive
tsunami," he said.

Clive Collins, a seismologist at Geoscience Australia, said the
Macquarie Island earthquake involved two tectonic plates moving against
each other horizontally, rather than vertically, and was unlikely to
displace the large quantity of water needed to generate a tsunami.

"It's most unlikely there would be any tsunami," he said. "It's a fairly
large earthquake and it's fairly shallow, but we don't think there's any
risk."

The isolated, sparsely populated island lies about 835 miles south of
the island state of Tasmania, and serves as a base for Australian
expeditions to Antarctica.