Residents of islands from the South Pacific to Australia were preparing Wednesday for the possible effects of a tsunami set off by an 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Solomon Islands, according to scientists and news reports from the area.
“Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said on its Web site.
The earthquake struck around 11 a.m. Australian time in the Santa Cruz Islands, part of the Solomon chain.The center said the tsunami warning was limited to the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, Kosrae, Fiji, Kiribati, Wallis and Futuna.
But a lesser alert, a tsunami watch, was declared for American Samoa, Australia, Guam, the Northern Marianas, New Zealand and eastern Indonesia.
In New Zealand, thousands of people were at the beach, swimming in the sea on a glorious summer day on Waitangi Day, a national holiday — quite oblivious to the potential for a tsunami. No tsunami sirens had been set off.
Scientific advisers in Wellington. the capital, were investigating the threat of a tsunami reaching New Zealand shores.
The Associated Press in Sydney reported that the quake had occurred near Lata in Temotu Province, where the population is around 30,000.
The warning said the tsunami had the potential to be “destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicenter and could also be a threat to more distant coasts.”
The center estimated tsunami wave arrival times at various points in the area.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on its Web site Wednesday that the Solomon Islands’ National Disaster Management office had advised those living in low-lying areas, especially Makira and Malaita, to move to higher ground.
A Solomons hospital director said villages had been destroyed by the quake, Agence France-Presse reported.
Tsunami Fear After Quake Off Solomons
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Tsunami Fear After Quake Off Solomons
