8.0 quake triggers South Pacific tsunami
2013-02-06 07:19
Solomon Islands - A powerful 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck
near the Solomon Islands on Wednesday, triggering a small tsunami that swept
into isolated island communities and sparked tsunami alerts across the South
Pacific that were later cancelled.
Damage reports were limited, and there were no reports of
casualties.
The quake struck 340km east of Kira Kira in the Solomons,
the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii said.
Tidal surges
A tsunami measuring 0.9 metres hit remote Temotu province in
the Solomons following the quake, the centre said, but it later cancelled
warnings for other South Pacific islands, as well as for Australia and New
Zealand, as the danger of a major destructive wave passed.
Luke Taula, a fisheries officer in Lata on Santa Cruz
Island, which took the brunt of the tsunami, said it arrived in small tidal
surges rather than as one large wave.
"We have small waves come in, then go out again, then
come back in. The waves have reached the airport terminal," he told
Reuters by telephone.
The worst damage would be to villages on the western side of
a point that protects the main township, he said.
"There are no casualties reported so far. But there are
reports that some communities have been badly hit, their houses have been damaged
by the waves."
About 5 000 people lived in and around the town, but the
area was deserted as people fled to higher ground, Taula said, adding that
aftershocks were being felt.
The Solomons, perched on the geologically active
"Pacific Ring of Fire", were hit by a devastating tsunami following
an 8.1 magnitude quake in 2007. At least 50 people were killed then and dozens
left missing and more than 13 villages destroyed.
Recent earthquakes
"It's an area that is very prone to earthquakes,"
said Jonathan Bathgate, seismologist at Geoscience Australia. "We've had
seven 6-plus magnitude earthquakes in this region since January 31, so it has
been very active in the past week."
Initial signs were that the tremor was a thrust quake, in
which vertical movement in the continental plates generates higher risk of
tsunami, Bathgate added.
Authorities in the Solomons, Fiji, Guam and elsewhere had
urged residents to higher ground before the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre
cancelled its alerts.
"The earthquake would have to be quite a bit bigger to
make a much more sizeable tsunami," said Brian Shiro, geophysicist for the
centre in Hawaii.
"The good news for the folks in the region is that the
tsunami appears to be constrained to the areas we've listed in our bulletins
and it's not going to be a an oceanwide threat."
