A magnitude-7.4 earthquake has struck around 150 kilometres south of Papua New Guinea, according to the US Geological Service (USGS).
A tsunami warning for "hazardous" waves is current within 300km of the epicentre.
The USGS measured the earthquake depth at 35km.
Islands in PNG, Solomon Islands, Indonesia, Vanuatu, Fiji, Indonesia, the Philippines and surrounding nations are expected to be hit by the waves.
The new Britain Province has been hit by a series of earthquakes this year.
The weather bureau says there is no tsunami threat to Australia.
New Britain, the largest island of the Bismarck Archipelago, is east of mainland PNG and has a population of about 500,000 people.
The island lies on the 4,000km long Pacific Australia plate, which forms part of the "Ring of Fire," a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.
Residents said the tremors sent items crashing off supermarket shelves.
East New Britain's capital Kokopo is without electricity and there have been reports of a landslide in Vunabakut.
"If there is a tsunami it would be quite small," co-director of the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre Daniel Jaksa said.
"This is not unexpected, we can assume that these sorts of earthquakes in this region will continue to occur in the future."
Mr Jaska said he was not anticipating the tremors would cause serious damage to areas close to the epicentre.
"This region of Papua New Guinea is very, very sparse in population," he said.
"We wouldn't expect anything to happen there."
ABC/wires
A tsunami warning for "hazardous" waves is current within 300km of the epicentre.
The USGS measured the earthquake depth at 35km.
Islands in PNG, Solomon Islands, Indonesia, Vanuatu, Fiji, Indonesia, the Philippines and surrounding nations are expected to be hit by the waves.
The new Britain Province has been hit by a series of earthquakes this year.
The weather bureau says there is no tsunami threat to Australia.
New Britain, the largest island of the Bismarck Archipelago, is east of mainland PNG and has a population of about 500,000 people.
The island lies on the 4,000km long Pacific Australia plate, which forms part of the "Ring of Fire," a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.
Residents said the tremors sent items crashing off supermarket shelves.
East New Britain's capital Kokopo is without electricity and there have been reports of a landslide in Vunabakut.
"If there is a tsunami it would be quite small," co-director of the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre Daniel Jaksa said.
"This is not unexpected, we can assume that these sorts of earthquakes in this region will continue to occur in the future."
Mr Jaska said he was not anticipating the tremors would cause serious damage to areas close to the epicentre.
"This region of Papua New Guinea is very, very sparse in population," he said.
"We wouldn't expect anything to happen there."
ABC/wires
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