Massive quake strikes remote Macquarie Island in Antarctica

STRASBOURG, Dec 23 (AFP) - A massive earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale struck the largely uninhabited area around Macquarie Island in Antarctica, south of New Zealand and Tasmania, early Friday, French seismological officials said.
The quake hit at 1458 GMT Thursday, the Earth Sciences Observatory in Strasbourg said in a statement.
The Macquarie archipelago, an Australian territory some 1,500 kilometers (850 miles) southeast of Tasmania, is the only island group in the world composed entirely of oceanic crust and rocks from the mantle -- deep below the earth's surface -- according to the web site of the Australian government's environment ministry.
The island group, with mountains rising to 400 meters (1,350 feet) above sea level, became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997 due in part to its unique natural beauty and in part to its diversity in fauna. Its colony of king penguins, numbering around 850,000, is one of the largest in the world.

12/23/2004 18:30 GMT - AFP