A tsunami warning was issued for a time this evening after a powerful 7.8-magnitude undersea earthquake in the Pacific..
The areas of New Zealand, the Kermadec Islands and Tonga were later given the all clear.
The quake, initially reported as magnitude 7.9, struck at 7.03am on Thursday (8.03pm Irish time) 211km east of Raoul Island, which is part of the Kermadec archipelago.
The USGS said the quake's epicentre was only 48km deep.
The US Pacific Tsunami Centre said as it issued the tsunami warning that it did not yet know whether an actual tsunami had developed.
It said that if a tsunami did occur it would hit East Cape in New Zealand within two hours and Auckland within three hours of the quake.
