CANBERRA, Australia, Jumada I 01, 1439, January 18, 2018, SPA -- Seismic activity beneath a Papua New Guinea volcano could mean that a major eruption was imminent, a volcanologist said on Thursday, according to AP. Thousands of people have been evacuated from islands surrounding Kadovar Island off the South Pacific nation's north coast since a volcano there began erupting on Jan. 5, spouting ash. Steve Saunders, principal geodetic surveyor at the Rabaul Volcano Observatory in Papua New Guinea, said seismic activity had recently increased beneath the volcano. "The reason we're getting activity is probably because new magma is moving up from deeper down," Saunders told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Papua New Guinea coastal residents have been warned that a major eruption could cause a local tsunami. Papua New Guinea sits on the "Ring of Fire," a line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific that has frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. --SPA 03:19 LOCAL TIME 00:19 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w590323