The 2009 Vanuatu earthquakes were a series of large submarine earthquakes that took place to the west of the Torres Islands of Vanuatu on October 7, 2009 UTC. A 7.6 Mw earthquake, at 22:03 UTC, was followed by a 7.8 Mw event 15 minutes later at 22:18 UTC,[1] and a 7.3 Mw event at 23:13 UTC.[3] The similar size and close timing of the first two events has been dubbed as an earthquake doublet.[4]