Pacific Tsunami
Update: The ABC is now carrying reports of deaths and injuries in Samoa, American Samoa, and Tonga, as a result of the earthquake, and tsunami. The USGS has logged 13 additional aftershocks in the area in the 5 to 6 range.
The CBC reports South Pacific tsunami alert issued after earthquake
The quake struck 35 kilometres below the ocean floor and was 190 kilometres from American Samoa and 200 kilometres from Samoa, the survey said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a general alert for the South Pacific region, from American Samoa to New Zealand.
The ABC has a later report
Sea level readings indicated a tsunami was generated in the Pacific, said the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, a branch of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the quake had been 8.3-magnitude and said it “may have been destructive along coasts” near the epicentre.
The USGS earthquake site lists the initial shock as 8.0 on 2009/09/29 at 17:48:11 UTC [12:48PM CDT] with a 5.6 aftershock.
There are too many variables for anyone to predict the height of a tsunami or the direction of travel, but a beach visit in the South Pacific would not be a good idea. This was a major shock and will probably trigger multiple shocks in other places.
4 comments
We have the Channel Islands “kinda” protecting us, all 18′ above sea level.
.-= last blog ..Congrats, Fabio! =-.
Based on reports from Australia, that should be enough. The surf and currents will probably be weird for a while on the West Coast, but nothing huge coming at you.
Yeah, it was very bad. and the evening news just reported that a strong earthquake of 7.9 struck off the city of Padang on the coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island. So, expect another tsunami and aftershocks! 🙁
I’ll be posting on the aftermath shortly.
The USGS map shows the entire Pacific Ring active right now. This is probably still part of the reaction to the last, terrible earthquake/tsunami event ringing though the plates. It takes years for these things to equalize.