Tsunami warning after Vanuatu Earthquakes
by Sail-World.com & Powerboat-world.com on 8 Oct 2009
Samoa waterfront after the Tsunami SW
Tsunami warning for Pacific Islands after two major undersea earthquakes off Vanuatu
A Tsunami warning has been issued in the Pacific Ocean and Coral Sea after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake off the Vanuatu coast, which was quickly followed by a 7.3 tremor, just over an hour ago.
The first earthquake was located off the coast of Vanuatu and hit at 9.03am (AEDT) and the second hit less than 5km away.
The Tsunami warning covers New Zealand, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Nauru, PNG, Tuvalu, Fiji, New Caledonia and surrounding islands.
In Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology has now issued a tsunami watch for North Queensland. The tsunami watch for coastal areas between Yeppoon and Bowen was issued at 8.44am (AEST).
Earlier today another earthquake struck south-east of the Sulu archipelago of the Philippines, the US Geological Survey reports. The epicentre of the 6.7 Philippines quake was located 297km south-east of Jolo on the Sulu archipelago.
An earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale near Samoa on September 30th 2009 triggered a Pacific Ocean tsunami, which resulted in 150 deaths.
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.
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