WELLINGTON, Jul (Reuters) - New Zealand civil defense authorities said they expected stronger than normal ocean currents and a possible increase in the size of waves around the eastern coast but no wall of water after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean north east of the country.
A tsunami warning was issued for eastern coastal areas of the North Island, including the country's main city Auckland, with the first surge expected just before 9 a.m. local time (5 p.m. EDT).
However, the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Center, which issued the original warning after the quake, later canceled its warning, but reported waves were 2.2-2.7 feet high around Raoul Island, the main island in the Kermadecs.
New Zealand civil defense maintained a warning that people should stay out of the water and away from beaches in the target areas.
"We might get quite extreme currents, so it is a threat to boats, but we're not anticipating damage to land," Clive Manly the civil defense controller for the Auckland region, told radio New Zealand.
He said it was possible that waves of up to a meter above normal heights might occur.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 7:03 a.m. on Thursday (3:03 p.m. EDT on Wednesday) at the epicenter, 131 miles east of Raoul Island, part of the Kermadec archipelago, and was only 30 miles deep, the USGS said.
The Kermadec Islands are uninhabited except for science and conservation teams, and sit around 1180 kilometers north east of New Zealand.
They sit in a geologically active region of the South Pacific where the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates meet, and large earth tremors are not unusual.
New Zealand has been more alert to earthquakes since the South Island city of Christchurch, was struck by two devastating quakes in September last year and in February this year. The latter killed 181 people and caused an estimated NZ$15 billion of damage.
(Gyles Beckford)
