About 500 homes were destroyed or damaged when a powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked the Solomon Islands on Monday, causing panic but no major injuries, disaster officials said.

The National Disaster Management Office said it was possible that thousands of people could be homeless, but an exact assessment could not be made until ground parties were able to reach remote islands on Tuesday.

The US Geological Survey said the epicentre was 103 kilometres (65 miles) from the earthquake-prone island town of Gizo in the western Pacific archipelago, and local officials said it triggered a small tsunami.

It was the largest of a swarm of tremors centred on the area, ignited by a 6.5 magnitude quake on Monday morning and with several strong aftershocks up to magnitude 6.1 over the following hours.

"There are 500 homes that have been affected but not all have been totally destroyed," Disaster Management Office spokesman Julian Makaa told AFP after officials took a reconnaissance flight over remote islands near the epicentre.

The average home in the Solomon Islands would house four to five people.

A patrol boat carrying water, food and tarpaulins was dispatched from the capital Honiara for the worst affected areas of Rendova island and Marova Lagoon about 300 kilometres (180 miles) away, Makaa said.

"The earthquake caused a small wave, and a few people suffered minor injuries as they ran away from the shore in panic," Makaa said.

The Disaster Management Office had also received radio reports that some tourists received minor injuries on the conservation island of Tetepare and there were houses destroyed at Marovo Lagoon, both near Rendova.

"A patrol boat will be sent to the area with water, food and tarpaulins as a precaution," Makaa said, adding residents on the outer islands have been warned "to remain alert for sea and tide fluctuations" as aftershocks continue.

An 8.0-magnitude earthquake in the same area nearly three years ago killed 52 people, destroyed hundreds of homes and displaced thousands.

The Hawaii-based tsunami warning centre said the latest earthquake was powerful enough to have been destructive along coasts near the epicentre but there was no wider threat.

"No tsunami threat exists for other coastal areas in the Pacific although some other areas may experience small, non-destructive, sea-level changes lasting up to several hours," the centre said in a bulletin.

Gizo, on Ghizo island, is the second largest town in the Solomon Islands with a population of around 6,000.

It is about 360 kilometres northwest of Honiara which lies on the island of Guadalcanal, where residents said they felt shakes but there was no damage.

Geoscience Australia seismologist Clive Collins said the main quake, which was estimated at 7.0 magnitude by Australian seismologists, was probably about 80 kilometres from the nearest land.

Further south, in earthquake prone New Zealand, tremors of 4.3 and 3.5 were recorded over the past 24 hours. There was another earthquake of 4.9 off the coast of Tonga but there were no reports of damage.

Like much of the Pacific, the Solomons regularly experiences large earthquakes and lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire which generates most of the world's major tremors.

Gizo harbour lost most of it wharves and jetties in the 2007 quake and subsequent tsunami which was officially put at five metres high but with some reports of a 10-metre-high wall of water.

On September 29 last year, a devastating tsunami swept along coasts in the Pacific islands of Samoa and Tonga, killing 186 people and wiping out entire villages.

Villages and resorts in Samoa, American Samoa and northern Tonga were flattened by the giant waves generated by the massive earthquake, the strongest in a nearly a century.

earlier related report
Aftershocks rattle Solomons after quake and tsunami
Honiara (AFP) Jan 5, 2010 - Aftershocks continued to shake the Solomon Islands Tuesday as officials visited isolated villages a day after a powerful 7.2 magnitude quake and tsunami damaged at least 500 homes.

Information from the remote area remained sketchy but a police patrol boat from the capital Honiara left Monday night to assess damage in the region about 300 kilometres west of the capital of the South Pacific nation.

There were no reports of deaths or serious injuries following the quakes and tsunami on Monday.

Another 5.1 magnitude aftershock rattled the region Tuesday morning and a 6.2 aftershock late Monday sent villagers fleeing for higher ground, said the director of the Solomon Islands Disaster Management Office, Loti Yates.

"The quake frightened a lot of people into running away from their coastal villages," Yates said.

He added that landslides had occurred on Rendova and Tetepare islands following the 7.2 quake and an earlier 6.5 tremor.

"We are still waiting for the latest reports since the survey of the area yesterday," Yates said.

The office said damage was caused by the earthquakes and a tsunami of up to eight feet (almost 2.5 metres), according to officials in the region.

Officials reported Monday that at least 500 homes had been damaged or destroyed but Yates said these were all in the Morovo Lagoon area and further damage on Rendova and Tetepare was still to be assessed.

Rendova is home to around 3,600 people, according to UNICEF, which is rebuilding 19 schools on the island following the April 2007 tsunami which killed 52 people in the region, destroyed hundreds of homes and displaced thousands.

UNICEF Pacific representative Isiye Ndombi said rapid response teams had been sent to Rendova and Tetepare, a largely uninhabited island except for an eco-tourism venture.

"It will take several days however until we know the full extent and consequences of this tsunami because these islands are very remote and difficult to access," Ndombi said.