NEWS AND NOTES
Blue Water Sailing
MARCH 20, 2009
Major Earthquake Hits and Undersea Volcano Erupts in Tonga
An earthquake measuring a magnitude of 7.9 has struck off the coast of Tonga.
The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre released an alert following the earthquake on
Thursday, but cancelled it hours later, saying no Tsunami was expected.
"When no major waves are observed for two hours after the estimated time of arrival ...
then local authorities can assume the threat is passed," it said.
Photo courtesy of http://phoenix.cox.net/
The warning was initially given for Tonga, Niue, Kermadec Island, American Samoa, Samoa Wallis-Futuna and Fiji after the earthquake's registered epicentre was 209km southeast of Nuku'alofa, the capital of Tonga.
The quake happened at 1817GMT at a focal depth of 10km, the US Geological Survey reported. An undersea volcano has been erupting for days near Tonga, shooting smoke, steam and ash hundreds of metres into the sky, without posing any danger to islanders.
Residents of Tonga said the steam and ash column first appeared on Monday morning,
after a series of sharp earthquakes were felt in the capital. From: aljazeera.net
Photo courtesy of [AFP]
Cruisers' now living in Nuku'alofa wrote on Facebook that they "could see the smoke from the Volcano from their home and that glasses rattled from the earthquake, which registered 7.9 and was centered just south of Tonga. The Volcano and the earthquake were reported to be approximately 300 km apart and were also reported to be unrelated. MORE: Scientists head to undersea volcano near Tonga to inspect plume.
