Courtesy usgs.gov

SYDNEY (AP/WGGB) — A tsunami generated by a powerful undersea earthquake off the Solomon Islands has damaged dozens of homes in that South Pacific island chain.

However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says that tsunami warnings for elsewhere have been cancelled.

A tsunami alert was issued for several South Pacific islands after the strong earthquake struck earlier this evening.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says the earthquake generated a tsunami of .9 meters (3 feet).  The initial tsunami warning was based on an evaluation of the earthquake.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake struck 81 kilometers (50 miles) west of Lata, in the Solomon Islands, at a depth of 5.8 kilometers (3.6 miles.)

Josephine Mae, a police official in the Solomon’s capital city of Honiara, said she had not felt any shaking.

The tsunami warning earlier was in effect for the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, Kosrae, Fiji, Kiribati, Wallis and Futuna. A tsunami watch is in effect for American Samoa, Australia, New Zealand and eastern Indonesia.