The earthquake measured 5.8 magnitude and struck an area near the town of Lae, around 170 miles from the busy city of Port Moresby.
The Papa New Guinea earthquake is not expected to have caused serious damage but the US Geological Society did warn many buildings in the area are vulnerable to quakes.
They said: “Overall, the population in this region resides in structures that are a mix of vulnerable and earthquake resistant construction.
“The predominant vulnerable building types are informal (metal, timber, GI etc.) and unreinforced brick masonry construction.”
They said the towns of Lae, home to 76,000 people, and Bulolo, home to 16,000, experienced light shaking.
A further 350,000 people experienced weak shaking further from the epicentre. No tsunami watch or warning was issued for the earthquake, which struck at a depth of 45 miles at just before midday.
It is just the latest earthquake measuring 2.5 magnitude to have struck the pacific ring of fire over the past 24 hours.
Last night a 5.3 quake rocked the nearby Solomon Islands, while a 5.3 quake also struck Indonesia causing some concern in built-up areas.
Further north, two earthquakes struck Japan, first a 5.0 quake near Shizunai and then a slightly smaller 4.8 quake near Oarai.
Earthquakes also rattled the west coast of America and Canada during the last 24 hours, with the Gulf of Alaska rocked by 12 separate earthquakes ranging in magnitude from 2.5 to 4.0.
This comes just a week after a massive 8.0 magnitude quake caused evacuations in Alaska and tsunami watches along the entire west coast of America and parts of Mexico.
Further down the coast, California was hit by four mid-strength earthquakes, along with a 4.5 quake in Nicaragua.
The Pacific Ring of Fire is the most geologically active area in the world with more than 90 per cent of earthquakes occurring here, as well as 22 or the 25 biggest volcanic eruptions in history.
The volatility on the Pacific Ring of Fire over the past two weeks has increased fears for the Big One: a major earthquake in a highly-populated area on the US west coast or in Japan.
And countries across the blog stretching from Chile in South America to New Zealand are preparing for more chaos and possible aftershocks and tremors after weeks of eruptions and quakes.