Tsunami warnings issued after massive earthquakes off New Zealand coast
TSUNAMI warnings were triggered across the South Pacific following one of the strongest earthquakes to hit the region in modern history.
The magnitude 8.1 quake in the Kermadec Islands region, about 620 miles from New Zealand’s two main islands, was the largest in a series of tremors over several hours, including two earlier quakes that registered magnitude 7.4 and magnitude 7.3.
Small tsunami waves were seen, but the threat caused traffic jams and some chaos as people scrambled to get to higher ground.
Residents recorded videos of small wave surges in some places, including at Tokomaru Bay, near Gisborne.
In the afternoon, the National Emergency Management Agency said the threat had passed and people could return to their homes, although they should continue avoiding beaches.
One of the earlier quakes hit much closer to New Zealand and awoke many people as they felt a long, rumbling shaking.
“Hope everyone is ok out there,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wrote on Facebook during the night.
After the largest quake, civil defence authorities told people in some coastal areas to immediately get to higher ground, warning a damaging tsunami was possible, and waves could reach up to three metres (10ft).
Emergency Management Minister Kiri Allan said people had followed the advisory.
“They felt the long or strong earthquakes and they knew to grab their bag and head into the highlands,” she said.
“I can only thank and acknowledge the tireless efforts of the men and women from up and down the coast who knew how to act, when to act, and what to do.”
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre warned the quake could cause tsunami waves of up to three metres in Vanuatu and up to one metre (3ft) in Tonga, other South Pacific islands and Latin America’s Pacific coast.
Chilean authorities ordered people off beaches due to the potential for a tsunami along the nation’s long coastline.
Guatemala issued a tsunami alert, and authorities in El Salvador ordered people to take precautions in recreational activities.
The US Geological Survey said the strongest quake was centred near the Kermadec Islands at a depth of 12 miles.
The agency said in a report the quake happened at the intersection of the Pacific and Australia tectonic plates and eclipsed the largest quake previously recorded in the region, a magnitude 8.0 in 1976.
It said the interaction between the plates creates one of the most seismically active regions in the world, and it has recorded 215 quakes there above magnitude 6.0 over the past century.
Jennifer Eccles, an earthquake expert at the University of Auckland, said the quake was at the top end of the scale for those involving only the Earth’s ocean crust. “This is about as big as it gets,” she said.
She said most quakes larger than magnitude 8.0 tend to occur when a section of more robust continental crust is involved.
Some wave surges hit parts of the coast but, by yesterday afternoon, authorities said the largest waves had passed. Residents were told they could return home.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said “tsunami waves have been observed”, but as yet no damage had been reported.
Just last week, New Zealand marked the 10th anniversary of the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that destroyed parts of Christchurch in the south Island, killing 185 people.
Tsunami warnings were also issued for Hawaii and American Samoa, but later stood down.
Patrick Ti’a Reid, 37, was among those in American Samoa, some 2,000 miles northeast of New Zealand, who had been told to evacuate to higher ground in an emergency bulletin.
“Alarms went off in our executive office building and we immediately took for higher ground,” Mr Ti’a Reid, who works for the government in the US territory, told the BBC.
He said the tsunami of 2009, which was triggered by an 8.1-magnitude earthquake, was “very much vivid in many Samoans’ minds”.