Quake lifts Solomons island metres from the sea

The recent earthquake in the Solomon Islands has caused reefs to become permanently exposed with one island being lifted by as much as 3 metres.

News release:

RANONGGA, Solomon Islands (AFP) - The force of this week's Solomons earthquake has lifted an island in the South Pacific archipelago and pushed out its shoreline by tens of metres, exposing surrounding reefs.

The remote island of Ranongga in the western Solomon Islands used to have submerged coral reefs that attracted scuba divers from around the world.

But since Monday's massive earthquake in the Solomon Islands, the reefs are now exposed above the water and are dying, an AFP reporter and photographer have seen.

The AFP team, which travelled to Ranongga on a chartered outboard after the quake, saw exposed reefs bleaching in the sun, and covered with dead fish, eels, clams and other marine life.

The 8.0-magnitude quake, caused by a shift in the Earth's tectonic plates, triggered a tsunami that killed at least 34 people in the remote western Solomons and left 5,500 homeless.

more at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070407/wl_afp/solomonsquakeisland_070407125221

Contributed by Tim Hochgrebe added 2007-04-08