After Third Large Quake Near New Zealand, Tsunami Warning Issued; Tsunami Watch in Hawaii (washingtonpost.com) 32
A major magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck roughly 600 miles northeast of New Zealand on Thursday afternoon, triggering concerns of a potentially damaging tsunami.
From a report: It's the third major earthquake in less than eight hours on the Kermadec Fault, which passes east of New Zealand. A magnitude 7.3 hit near New Zealand early on Thursday, followed by a 7.4 about 560 miles to the north a few hours later. Tsunami waves of 10 feet or greater are possible in the Kermadec Islands, with 3 to 9 foot waves in French Polynesia. American Samoa, the Cook Islands , Fiji, New Zealand and the Pitcairn Islands can expect water levels fluctuating by up to three feet. A tsunami warning was issued for American Samoa as well. A tsunami warning is in effect for New Zealand. The country's National Emergency Management Agency tweeted "TSUNAMI WARNING issued following Kermadecs earthquake." DW adds: The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) had withdrawn an earlier tsunami warning after the first quake, saying the threat had passed, but authorities renewed the warning following the second and third quake. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties.
Iceland has been rumbling too (Score:2)
Quake (Score:5, Funny)
Anyone else see "Quake" in the headline and instantly think the game instead of an EARTHquake? NO? Just me? oh... okay then.
Re:Quake (Score:5, Funny)
Phfft, please, I don't play games...or watch TV. I spend my time reading and stroking my beard, and strolling in the gardens. Everyone should be like me...er, no, scratch that. Everyone should think I'm really smart and interesting.
Re: Quake (Score:1)
Hello, fellow hipster!
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I am far enough from the coast to not be worried about a tsunami, but my nephew lives right on the coast so he has raced home from work to grab his partner and kids and take them to high ground.
I have seen a tidal surge caused by an earthquake and they're scary as hell. The one I saw was only about 3 metres or so, but that turns out to be a huge amount of water and flooded a large stretch of coast.
Re:Quake (Score:4, Informative)
As an Aucklander, who has felt 2 very short and minor Earthquakes in my 40+ years I can say they aren't common for all of us and if a "real" one ever hit here, the panic would be astronomical :)
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Oh yes, We are rather fucked should any volcanoes decide they want to pop up and let off some steam.
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The Aussies call us the Shaky Isles for a reason.
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the panic would be astronomical
If it were the impact of a huge-ish asteroid, sure. For a classic quake, wouldn't the panic rather be geological than astronomical?
S,cnr!
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I'm pretty sure arseholes like you don't really care much about other people, so you wouldn't be offering help if we needed it anyway.
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In the event of a disaster, where hospitals would already be overwhelmed, the prospect of COVID infected 'help' would be a tough call to make for anyone.
But the mechanisms in place seem to be working; people in NZ are keeping themselves safe from tsunamis and COVID.
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Why would we required international help ? Aotearoa New Zealand is a first world country, we can handle the effects of a tsunami.
When you have a global pandemic that has infected >65 million and killed >2.5 million, exercising caution to ensure is a good idea. Dunno where you are from, but we just had a pretty normal summer with no constraints for locals, including going to festivals, concerts, restaurants, bars etc with NO FEAR of getting COVID-19
But don't let the facts get in the way of your biased
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But don't let such facts get in the way of your isolationist attitude.
Re:Let's hope they don't require international hel (Score:4, Informative)
I think you need to do some learnin'.
Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada (and probably a few other Pacific rim places I can't remember), have a mutual fire/flood/etc assistance agreement, where we all send firefighters etc to the others countries in times of need, mainly to give the first responders there a break. For fires Australia and the US need the most assistance -- NZ routinely sends firefighters to Australia for example. For earthquakes Australia doesn't need assistance (only 1 earthquake I can remember in Aus), but NZ and the US get assistance sometimes.
So the problem isn't about isolationism on NZ's part, its about ignorance on your part.
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I don't agree with ffkom's line here. NZ's borders are presently and very effectively shut for good strategic reason. It's nothing personal and recent history shows that NZ is definitely not isolationist. If a serious-enough disaster came along then I think potential help would be considered on balance, just as today's press conference confirmed that advice to evacuate took priority over Covid-19 level 2 and 3 restrictions. Also, all these countries send help because they also benefit - not just because
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The difference between the 2011 earthquake and today's tsunami (and tsunami's in general) is that we have early-warning systems in place so can implement evacuation plans and get people to safety. Not so with an earthquake.
As usual, context is important. We are not isolationist, but we don't want the COVID-19 experience that all the other Western countries have had. 26 deaths is enough for us.
How many have died in your country ?
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"fear driven"
LOL! Enjoy your perpetual lockdown while I'm at the pub here in NZ, ffkom.
NZers weren't scared of doing a 6 week lockdown that eliminated COVID. We're not scared of wearing masks either (although we rarely need to wear them). We certainly haven't been scared to be out travelling, spending time with friends and enjoying a mint summer either.
We're also not scared of the fact that our economy is out performing even optimistic projections due to life being fairly pre-COVID normal for the past 12 mo
Re: Let's hope they don't require international he (Score:1)
That's just part of the story. We Germans were not afraid of any of that either, and Germans are super-conformist and reprimanding.
The bigger part is that you are a quite remote island.
While the EU had this unhealthy obsession of not questioning their imperial ideology, so closing borders was quite taboo. This led to waves going back and forth between countries who had just come out of lockdown and others who were about to enter lockdown (and even worse stupid neighbors that did just lie aboit the numbers b
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But we also have competent leadership that listens to scientific experts
As Denmark shows, this is not enough. The scientific experts also have to be competent.
The Danish government saved a lot of lives by ignoring the scientific experts and locking down when the experts said to not worry.
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Denmark, very much Denmark.
The Swedish government was given pretty much the same scientific advice, and chose to heed it. Hence the ridiculous death toll there.
USGS Map (Score:5, Informative)
Can be found here [usgs.gov].
Wave height is not the most relevant factor. (Score:1)
Those waves may be severad hundret miles long and extremely fast.
Out on the ocean, you will usually be fine.
But at the shore, all that water gets "compressed", "piles up", and "turns vertical". Apart from just feeling like they are never-ending, even if they remain just 10ft high. And that is what gets you.
COVID meant islands at the epicentre uninhabited (Score:4, Informative)