Vanuatu police are investigating the theft of geo-hazard equipment on the island of Efate worth more than 30,000 US dollars.
The theft was noticed when the departments of geo-hazard and meteorology noticed that information from the main station at Klem Hill had stopped coming.
The thieves walked away from the site - about 12 kilometres from Port Vila - with solar panels, a transmitter and the seismometer.
The station supplies real-time information about the area which frequently experiences earthquakes.
The two departments and police have appealed for assistance from chiefs and community leaders to recover the equipement.
