Rock Pacific islands

An undersea earthquake has struck off the coast of California and a 7 magnitude tremor has been felt near the Vanuatu islands.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the California tremor occurred at 3.31am this morning, about 31 miles southeast of San Clemente Island and 43 miles south of Avalon.

The quake near the Vanuatu islands is the fourth to hit the archipelago and the sixth to affect the region in just 24 hours.

Idyllic: But four undersea earthquakes have struck near Vanuatu, a chain of 83 islands, in the last 24 hours

It comes after emergency services were placed on full alert on tourist islands around Fiji after three earthquakes struck last night.

The newest quake, measured at 3.8 on the Richter scale, was felt in parts of Orange County, including Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, but police said there had not received any calls about damage.

It follows three quakes yesterday which struck near the Vanuatu archipelago and south of the Philippines.

The first, with a magnitude of 7.8, struck 183 miles north west of the island of Santo, the most northerly of the islands in the Vanuatu group, at a depth of 21 miles.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, based in Hawaii, immediately issued a regional tsunami warning covering Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, with thousands of islanders moving away from the coastline.

Tremor: A quake measuring 3.8 on the Richter Scale was felt in Huntington Beach, California, this morning

There were no immediate reports of injury or damage from officials in Vanuatu, a chain of 83 islands.

It was followed hours later by two smaller quakes, measuring 7.3 and 7.7, in virtually the same location.

And a strong earthquake measuring 6.7 struck south of the Philippines in the Celebes Sea, 730 miles south of the capital Manila. There were no reports of damage.

The centre later cancelled tsunami warnings after sea-level readings indicated that the wave generated by the quakes was too small to cause much damage.

A police officer in Luganville, on the island of Santo, said: 'We felt the quake - it shook the ground, but not very strongly.'

The quakes come just over a week after a magnititude 8.3 tremor caused a large wave in the South Pacific that devastated coastal villages in Samoa, American Samoa and nortern Tonga.

Treble dose: Three earthquakes hit in virtually the same place, 300 miles north west of Santo Island, the most northerly island in the Vanuatu group

A total of 224 people were killed in the tsunami on September 29, with search teams still discovering bodies in the worst hit areas.

Schools were evacuated after the tsuanmi warning as people headed to higher ground to escape a repeat of the disaster.

Vanuatu and Fiji are popular destinations for tourists from Britain, Australia and New Zealand.