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USGS: Magnitude 7.2 VANUATU Wednesday, August 01, 2007 at 17:08:54 UTC Earthquake Details Magnitude 7.2 Date-Time Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 17:08:54 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Thursday, August 2, 2007 at 4:08:54 AM = local time at epicenter Location 15.710°S, 167.690°E Depth 147.8 km (91.8 miles) set by location program Region VANUATU Distances 65 km (40 miles) ESE of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu 235 km (145 miles) NNW of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu 455 km (285 miles) NNW of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu 1995 km (1240 miles) NE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia USGS Magnitude 7.2 Vanuatu Historic Seismicity CANBERRA (Reuters)...

7.2 quake in Vanuatu:http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2007/us2007fmba/

Headless Bodies Hold Secrets to Pacific Migration Heather Whipps Special to LiveScience LiveScience.com Thu Mar 15, 10:15 AM ET Archaeologists working on the Pacific islands of Vanuatu have found the region's oldest cemetery, and it's filled with a slew of headless bodies. The peculiar 3,000-year-old skeletons belong to the Lapita people, the earliest known inhabitants of the Pacific Islands. Their DNA could shed light on how the many remote island specks surrounding Vanuatu were colonized, the researchers say. "Both Vanuatu and Western Polynesia were first settled by the Lapita culture but their populations are somewhat different genetically and this has...

Vanuatu cargo cult marks 50 years By Phil Mercer BBC News, Tanna One of the world's last surviving cargo cults is celebrating its official 50th anniversary on Tanna island in Vanuatu. The John Frum Movement worships a mysterious spirit that urged them to reject the teachings of the Church and maintain their traditional customs. The cult was reinforced during WWII, when US forces landed with huge amounts of cargo - weapons, food and medicine. Villagers believe the spirit of John Frum sent the US military to their South Pacific home to help them. Devotees say that an apparition of John...

Quake Near Pacific Island of Vanuatu Wednesday October 18, 2006 6:46 PM SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - A magnitude 6.2 earthquake rumbled deep below the earth's surface off the Pacific island of Vanuatu on Wednesday, but no damage or injuries were reported. The quake struck 86 miles below the seabed off the coast of Vanuatu at 9:45 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was centered about 195 miles northwest of the capital, Port Vila. No tsunami warning was issued. Vanuatu, formerly the New Hebrides Islands, is made up of 13 main islands located about 1,400 miles east of Australia....

Earthquake of 6.7 magnitude hits near Vanuatu Officials downplay risk of local or Pacific Ocean-wide tsunamis SYDNEY, Australia - A strong 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu on Tuesday, prompting local authorities to issue possible tsunami alerts to outlying islands. “We haven’t had any impact [damage] at the moment, but we are getting into providing some alerts for a possible tsunami to some islands in the north,” Vanuatu’s National Disaster Management Office director, Job Esau, told Reuters by telephone. The quake at 9:18 a.m. was about 50 miles from Vanuatu’s largest island, Espiritu Santo, in...

Much as I might like to do something OTHER than volcanoes eventually, they keep doing interesting things! Two pictures from this site: New eruption on Aoba volcano, Vanuatu In November 2005, a mild eruption built a cinder cone lake in Lake Voui, a lake inside crater of Ambae volcano on Vanuatu. Below is what it looked like on January 9. The picture below was taken on May 28. I say there's some interestin' chemistry going on in that thar lake.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A lake atop a rumbling volcano on the South Pacific island of Ambae has changed color from blue to bright red, puzzling scientists. Mount Manaro, one of four active volcanos on the island nation of Vanuatu, has been showing signs of erupting for only the second time in 122 years. "We are still ... trying to understand this change of color in the lake from blue to red," Geology and Mines Department director Esline Garae said by telephone Monday from Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila. She said two scientists on Ambae Island were monitoring Lake Vui as...

TOKYO, March 27 (UPI) -- China's insatiable appetite for energy and natural resources, and its desire to secure the sea lanes through which such resources are transported, are propelling the country's outreach to even the smallest of the Pacific Islands, leaders from the island nations heard last week at a convention in Tokyo. China's determination to undermine Taiwan's influence in the South Pacific is prompting generous assistance in infrastructure projects, such as building sports complexes in Fiji and Kiribati, and providing cargo ships to Vanuatu. Representatives from 22 island nations gathered in Tokyo at the Asia-Pacific Island Nations Summit from...

History between the cracks Ancient pottery from Vanuatu might shed light on the last great human migration, writes Deborah Smith. TAKARONGA KUAUTONGA carefully examines the shape, colour and patterns on the ancient fragments of pottery. "It's like a big jigsaw puzzle," he says, as he patiently pieces them together. The 3000-year-old pot he is reconstructing was unearthed, along with 25 headless human skeletons, at a burial site in Vanuatu - the oldest graveyard discovered so far in the South Pacific. Intricately decorated, it is one of four rare, well-preserved items of Lapita pottery - three pots and a dish -...

In John They TrustSouth Pacific villagers worship a mysterious American they call John Frum - believing he'll one day shower their remote island with riches By Paul Raffaele   In the morning heat on a tropical island halfway across the world from the United States, several dark-skinned men—clad in what look to be U.S. Army uniforms—appear on a mound overlooking a bamboo-hut village. One reverently carries Old Glory, precisely folded to reveal only the stars. On the command of a bearded “drill sergeant,” the flag is raised on a pole hacked from a tall tree trunk. As the huge banner...

The assertion that the island of Vanuatu is slipping into the Pacific Ocean because of manmade global warming is interesting in two respects. U.N. officials at the 11th annual U.N. Climate Change Conference in Montreal last week said rising sea levels, more frequent storms and higher tides caused by hurricanes -- all supposedly the effects of civilization's greenhouse-gas emissions -- were forcing islanders to flee inland. Interestingly, Vanuatu means "land eternal." The island, actually a chain of 83, has a land mass roughly the size of Connecticut. The nation's Web site describes islanders as "a peaceful, gentle race, who enjoy...

Parents: Vanuatu Volcano Sickening Kids By RAY LILLEY (Associated Press Writer) From Associated Press December 10, 2005 11:21 PM EST AMBAE ISLAND, Vanuatu - Mothers at an evacuation center seeking shelter from an erupting volcano on this South Pacific island said Saturday the heat and fumes from the mountain had made their children sick and there was no medicine to treat them. Mount Manaro has been pumping steam, ash and sulfur gases into the air since Nov. 27 after waking from a 10-year slumber, sending more than half of the island's 10,000 population to five evacuation centers on the island....

A teacher in Vanuatu says he twice warned the family of the New Zealand girl killed by a shark not to get into the water. Lapen Tilison told the Weekend Herald from Atchin Island that he always warned visiting yachties to stay out of the water where 7-year-old Alysha Webster of Coromandel Peninsula was fatally bitten. Mr Tilison had paddled out in a canoe to Alysha's parents' yacht just after it pulled into the attractive white, sandy bay where he lived, shortly before lunchtime on Wednesday. "They had just dropped the anchor and jumped in for a swim," he said....

Forget the million bucks--the Survivor set seems to be the latest place to find true love. Maine native Julie Berry came in fifth on Survivor: Vanuatu, but she still wound up with a prize of her own--the show's host, Jeff Probst. Berry, 24, and Probst, 43, reportedly began dating once filming on the show wrapped. Probst said he sparked up the relationship by sending the comely contestant an email to say hello over the summer. "Nobody is more surprised than me that I could find my love affair on a show that I host," Probst told People magazine, "but the...

Beijing's Sigh of Relief By Rodger Baker With much attention focused on the presidential run-off in Ukraine, another political scandal played out over the weekend in the tiny Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Serge Vohor, Vanuatu's prime minister for just four months, was removed from office by a parliamentary vote of no confidence after he stirred controversy by briefly -- and unilaterally -- establishing diplomatic relations with Taipei. The move, which effectively ended the island nation's ties with Beijing, was reversed by Vanuatu's Council of Ministers, and Vohor was voted out of office shortly thereafter. While the seemingly endless battle...

3,000-Year-Old Bodies Studied in Australia 25 minutes ago Add Science - AP to My Yahoo! SYDNEY, Australia - Headless bodies buried 3,000 years ago in the oldest cemetery in the Pacific could reveal much about the earliest settlers of Vanuatu, Fiji and Polynesia, Australian archeologists said on Friday. The burial site — which was accidentally uncovered by a bulldozer driver building an embankment for a prawn farm — contains the oldest human remains yet found in the region. Archeologists say the discovery will unearth many clues about the appearance and culture of the Lapita people — some of the earliest...

Good Morning, Fellow Survivor FReepers! Well, it’s that time again! Time to dust off the ol’ VCR (for those of use who aren’t fortunate enough to have TiVo!) Time to submerse ourselves in the seedy world of Media Whoredom! Time to live vicariously through the 18 contestants in the one TRUE Reality show on TV today! Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, I refer to none other than: SURVIVOR: VANUATU I’ll be back later to list the contestants’ bios and my first impressions. Till then, Take care, Freepmail me if you want added to or removed from the Survivor Pint List!