High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The 1998 Papua New Guinea earthquake was a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that took place in the early evening of Friday, 17 July 1998. The earthquake struck the north coast region of Papua New Guinea, 25 km (16 mi) from the coast near Aitape, and caused a large undersea landslide, which in turn caused a tsunami that hit the coast, killing more than 2200 people.