[h1]Solomon island lifted three metres by quake [span class="starrating"] [/span] [/h1][h3]By Kathy Marks, Asia-Pacific Correspondent [/h3][h4]Published: 09 April 2007
[/h4] The earthquake that triggered last week's tsunami in the Solomons lifted an entire island by three metres, exposing coral reefs that are now dying.
[/p] The pristine underwater reefs of Ranongga Island, in the western Solomons, attracted divers from all over the world. But the quake has changed the island's geography, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporter, who said the shoreline now extended out to sea by another 70 metres in places.[/p] An 8.0 magnitude earthquake shook this pocket of the South Pacific last Monday, setting off tidal waves that destroyed houses in low-lying areas. Between 30 to 40 people were killed, according to varying estimates by government and international agencies.[/p] The aid effort has been slow, hampered by bureaucracy and the remoteness of some of the islands. Rescue workers have yet to reach isolated Ranongga, but the AFP correspondent, who chartered a boat, reported that its fringing reefs have been transformed into a barren moonscape.[/p]Local people are still struggling to digest the enormity of the changes wrought on their mountainous island, 20 miles long by five miles wide. On the east coast, most of the harbour at Pienuna has reportedly vanished, leaving only a narrow inlet lined by newly exposed jagged reefs.[/p] One villager, Harison Gago, told AFP that Ranongga had been almost split in half by the earthquake, with cracks up to 50cm wide appearing.[/p]
