A major 8.0 magnitude earthquake is feared to have flattened villages in the Solomon Islands and has triggered a tsunami with destructive potential for Pacific nation coasts.
A small tsunami has already reached part of the Solomons and alerts are in effect as far afield New Zealand, but there is no threat to Australia.
"We know that a tsunami has been created," said Geoscience Australia seismologist David Jepsen. He said depending on the location of the quake, bigger waves could hit elsewhere.
"It's a big earthquake anyway in terms of just the shaking," he said.
The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at 0112 GMT near the Santa Cruz Islands in the Solomons, which have been hit by strong tremors over the past week, at a depth of 3.5 miles (5.8 kilometres).
Schoolchildren are evacuated to safety in the Suva district of Fiji Two powerful aftershocks of 6.4 and 6.6 magnitude were also recorded.
Locals in the Solomons capital Honiara, 580 kilometres (360 miles) from the epicentre, said the quake was not felt there, but some villages on the Santa Cruz islands were destroyed, according to a hospital director.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the wave may be destructive near the epicentre.
In Honiara, the capitial city of the islands, the warnings prompted residents to flee for higher ground, although most people remained calm.
"People are still standing on the hills outside of Honiara just looking out over the water, trying to observe if there is a wave coming in," Herming said.
"People around the coast and in the capital are ringing in and trying to get information from us and the National Disaster Office and are slowly moving up to higher ground," Tahu said. "But panic? No, no, no, people are not panicking."
Tsunami warnings are in effect for the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, Kosrae, Fiji, Kiribati, Wallis and Futuna, while American Samoa, Australia, New Zealand and eastern Indonesia are under a less serious tsunami watch.
In 2007 a tsunami following an 8.1-magnitude earthquake killed at least 52 people in the Solomons and left thousands homeless.
The Solomon Islands are part of the "Ring of Fire", a zone of tectonic activity around the Pacific Ocean that is subject to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
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