Jul 15 2009
Tsunami Warning for Australia’s East Coast
- Tsunami Warning for Australia’s East Coast -
A tsunami red alert warning for the east coast of Australia has now been demoted to a lesser ’marine’ version threat.
It appeared at one point that Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria would experience major, powerful wave activity.
A small tsunami of 7.8 magnitudes was generated after the undersea quake, just off New Zealand’s South Island. This was then followed by an aftershock of 6.1 magnitudes.
‘The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said small tsunamis, followed by unusual current movements, were detected at Spring Bay in southern Tasmania at 10.05pm and Port Kembla, south of Sydney, at 10.06pm’.
There is still a worry of unpredictable currents, but the threat of a tsunami following in the wake of the major undersea earthquake which occurred off the coast of New Zealand at 7.22 last night, reportedly has now passed.
The epicentre of the quake was determined to be at about 160km west of the city of Invercargill, on South Island, at a depth of about 35km.
A resident of Invercargill reported that the tremor was experienced lasting about a minute. Things were shaking and falling off the shelves.
‘Radio New Zealand said residents hundreds of kilometres away from the epicentre reported items falling off shelves, but said there were no casualties or serious damage’.
For the time being, people are still urged to be on their guard and to stay away from low-lying areas and well away from the sea.
Fluctuations of sea level have been observerd and it is still expected that there may still be occurences of unusual wave activity. -
reference: http://www.news.com.au
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology
I always enjoy reading your posts about natural events like tsunamis and hurricanes. You always cover them so well, and you can definitely tell that this is an area that you’re interested in.
Your posts are so well researched and interesting to read. I’m proud of you.