Pacific Ocean Tsunami after Samoan earthquake

by Sail-World.com on 30 Sep 2009 An earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale near Samoa this morning has triggered a Pacific Ocean tsunami and there is now a rising death toll.

The earthquake, at a depth of 35 kilometres, was centred 200 km south of the Samoan capital Apia and struck at 6.48am Tuesday local time and NZ time (3.48am Wednesday AEST) midway between the two island groups of Samoa and American Samoa. Local police report some deaths but numbers are unconfirmed.

US officials have reported deaths in American Samoa while police in Western Samoa said the tsunami had
caused an unknown number of deaths there. There are also reports that three children died in Samoa as the tsunami flattened houses and swept away cars.

A reporter for Radio Polynesia told Radio New Zealand that villages were 'wiped out' by the tsunami and people had been reported missing.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre based in Hawaii said sea level readings indicated a tsunami was generated and prompted a warning for New Zealand, and for much of the Pacific, including Vanuatu, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Kosrae Island, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, Pohnpei in Micronesia, the Wake Islands, Pitcairn and the Midway Islands, but the tsunami is no expected to affect Australia.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said waves 1.57 metres tall hit American Samoa, while 0.7 metre waves were recorded in Samoa.

Small tsunami waves washed ashore on the New Zealand East Cape coastline at 9.44am without causing any damage, New Zealand’s TV1 reported.



Latest reports show a rapidly rising death toll, with .

There are reports of people being washed out to sea and whole villages being destroyed by up to five deadly waves.

One unconfirmed report suggests up to 40 people from the Samoan village of Lalomanu, on the southeastern end of the island of Upolu - have been killed.

The New Zealand Foreign Affairs office said it had received reports of five people dead in Samoa and 'many more washed out to sea'. One report said the island was hit by 4m waves.

The tsunami waves which reached Wellington and Auckland were only about 40cm high.

The Samoan earthquake at 8.3 is much smaller than the 2004 Indian Ocean undersea earthquake of magnitude 9.2 that occurred on December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.

The Boxing Day Tsunamis on the coasts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand killed around 230,000 people in eleven countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 metre (100 feet) high.