Powerful Quake Hits Near Antarctica

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Great Earthquakes In Diverse Places

Powerful Quake Hits Near Antarctica*

Sunday August 20, 2006 7:01 AM

TOKYO (AP) - A powerful earthquake struck Sunday in the Scotia Sea
between South America and Antarctica, Japanese and U.S. officials said.

No tsunami alert was issued by the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning
Center, said Dale Grant, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological
Survey's National Earthquake Information Center.

The 6.9-magnitude quake struck at 1:41 a.m. local time, the USGS said.

Japan's Meteorological Agency put the preliminary magnitude at 7.2.

The quake, with a depth of about six miles, was centered in the Scotia
Sea, approximately 305 miles southwest of Bristol Island in the South
Sandwich island group, the USGS said.