NEW YORK, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale jolted 145 km NNW of Ndoi Island, Fiji at 19:57:17 GMT on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 659.39 km, was initially determined to be at 19.4561 degrees south latitude and 179.2833 degrees west longitude.