Earthquake Summary
Earthquake Summary Poster
Tectonic Summary
The Vanuatu earthquake of May 27, 2010 occurred on or near the plate boundary between the Australia and Pacific plates in the Coral Sea region of the southwest Pacific. In the region of the earthquake, the Australia plate moves to the east-northeast with respect to the Pacific plate at a velocity of approximately 91 mm/year. The Australia plate thrusts under the Pacific plate at the New Hebrides trench and dips to the east-northeast. The May 27 earthquake's location, depth, and focal mechanism are consistent with the earthquake having occurred as thrust faulting associated with subduction along the Australia-Pacific plate boundary.
This earthquake occurred between 70-130 km to the north of a sequence of large subduction thrust earthquakes in October of 2009. On October 7th, two earthquakes of M 7.7 and M 7.8 occurred 15 minutes apart. After these events, an M 7.4 aftershock struck approximately one hour later, and two M 6.6 and M 6.8 aftershocks occurred on the following day.
The Vanuatu region experiences a very high level of earthquake activity, with almost 50 events of magnitude 7 and larger having been recorded since 1973. The subducting Australia plate is seismically active to depths of about 350 km beneath the islands.
Shakemap of the earthquake. 
Vanuatu has been hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake at 04:14 local time on Friday (17:14 UTC on Thursday). The epicenter was located 215 kilometers to the northwest of , Espíritu Santo, Vanuatu; 340 kilometers to the southeast of , , Solomon Islands; 485 kilometers to the northwest of , Vanuatu; and 2,070 kilometers to the northeast of Brisbane, Australia.

The earthquake had a depth of 36.1 kilometers, approximately 22.4 miles. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in  issued a tsunami warning for Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia. They said on the report: "It is not known that a tsunami was generated. This warning is based only on the earthquake evaluation. An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines in the region near the epicenter within minutes to hours." The Vanuatu government Meteorological Office reported infrastructure cracks, and power outages, but does not foresee major damage. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, CNN reported. USGS initially reported the earthquake as 7.6, but they later downgraded it. Magnitude 5.7, 5.2 and 6.4 aftershocks were reported later by USGS.

The tsunami warning was cancelled an hour after it was issued. Geophysicist Barry Hershorn said to The Huffington Post that they had confirmed there was no tsunami from ocean buoys and from coastal sea level gauges in Vanuatu. The Vanuatu goverment said they were pleased the tsunami alert had been canceled. "We haven't received any reports yet about earthquake damage," said Salesa Kaniaha, Meteorological Office acting director of Vanuatu. "The very close proximity of the epicenter to Espíritu Santo the closest island meant there was nothing much we could do to alert residents to any danger," he added.

Vanuatu is an insular country located in southern Pacific Ocean, located 1,750 kilometers to the east of Australia.