A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 rocked a remote area of the South Pacific Ocean east of the island nation of Tonga Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
A newspaper reporter in Tonga said by telephone that buildings in the capital, Nuku'alofa, shook for about two minutes during the quake, Reuters reported.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injury.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said on its website (www.prh.noaa.gov) that the quake, 195 km (120 miles) east of Tonga, had been measured at a depth of 33 km and that no tsunami warning had been issued.
Volcanic arcs and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin form the so-called Ring of Fire, a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
It is the location of the 10 strongest earthquakes in the world since 1900, all of which registered a magnitude of 8.5 or above.