Affirming its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," Papua New Guinea has been struck yet again by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake on Wednesday, the fifth that the country experienced in a span of six weeks. No tsunami warnings were released.

The epicentre of the sixth quake to hit the country that is just lying south of the equator, 160km north of Australia, was recorded at 31 kilometres north of Rabaul, in East New Britain Province. It had a depth of 18 kilometres.

"Very minimal" damage, if any, is expected from this particular earthquake, John Bathgate, a seismologist from Geoscience Australia, said.

"Damage would be more likely in coastal areas of New Ireland," he said.

"It would certainly have given the area a good shake but Rabaul is on the edge of our damage radius."

No wide-ranging tsunami was likewise generated, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center based in Ewa Beach, Oahu, said.

"It's not unusual for the area to experience this type of quakes, or even larger," Mr Bathgate told AFP.

Rabaul Hotel owner Susan McGrade said she felt the ground shook for close to a minute.

"And I dropped the phone, I roared outside and my swimming pool was sloshing all over the place, just like surfing and the water was sloshing off onto the pavement around it," she was quoted as saying.

"And we just all jumped around - my girls and I try and pretend it's not that bad by jumping up and down."

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