Posted on 09/30/2007 2:26:28 AM PDT by bd476
The Bureau of Meteorology says it does not expect an earthquake that happened south of New Zealand will generate a tsunami that will pose any threat to Australia.
Earlier this afternoon, the weather bureau issued a tsunami bulletin warning people in coastal areas in Tasmania and south-eastern mainland Australia to listen to news updates.
But while New Zealand emergency services are on alert, there now appears to be little threat to populated areas.
The quake's epicentre was near the uninhabited Auckland Islands, around 500 kilometres south-west of the New Zealand south island city of Invercargill.
According to the European-based Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System, it struck around 3.20pm AEST and measured 7.6 on the Richter scale.
The European Union (EU) authorities issued an immediate tsunami alert for the region.
However the US Geological Survey has down-played both the size of the quake and the potential for a damaging tsunami.
The Honolulu-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre says the quake measured 7.3 at a depth of almost 19 kilometres.
They ruled out a tsunami reaching populated parts of the New Zealand mainland.
Investigations are continuing.
This image is looking approximately northwest, from southeast of Tasmania and shows Tasmania (middle of the image), the mainland (distance), the continental shelf (white), the steep continental slope and the deep abyssal plain west of Tasmania (dark blue to the left).
South-East Seascape the Geological Features
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CBS
Strong Earthquakes Trigger Tsunami Worries
TOKYO, Sept. 30, 2007
Two Powerful Seismic Events Have Authorities On Alert, No Damage Has Been Reported
(AP) The Japan Meteorological Agency says a quake with preliminary magnitude of 7.4 has occurred near New Zealand at around 2:24 p.m. in Japan, but preliminary reports suggested the quake was too far offshore to be felt.
The agency said in a statement that there may be chance of tsunami near the epicentre.
A spokesman for Geoscience Australia said seismologists were not expecting any damage given the distance offshore.
Volcanic arcs and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin form the so-called Ring of Fire, a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and the location of the top 10 earthquakes in the world since 1900. All of the top 10 measured an 8.5 magnitude or above.
Several hours earlier on Sunday, a strong earthquake swayed buildings on the Pacific island of Guam. No injuries, damage or tsunami were immediately reported.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake magnitude at 6.8 and said it occurred about 215 miles south-southeast of the U.S. territory of Guam. It had a depth of about 6.2 miles beneath the sea floor, according to the USGS.
The Japan Meteorological Agency did not issue an official tsunami warning, but said there may be a chance of one near the epicenter. However, an official from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, or PTWC in Honolulu, Hawaii, said the quake probably did not create a tsunami, and the center had not received any reports of one.
"It's very unlikely any destructive tsunami was created by this earthquake," said PTWC's assistant director, Stuart Weinstein. "It would have reached Guam by now."
"We haven't received any reports of tsunami activity in Guam," he said.
The earthquake was in an isolated part of the Pacific where they don't usually occur, according to Weinstein. It was probably felt in Guam as well as in Saipan, which is part of the U.S. commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Weinstein said. It's also possible it was felt in parts of Micronesia.
The combined population of Guam and Saipan is about 225,000.
"It was probably too far away from populated areas to cause much damage," Weinstein said.
The Japanese agency has not received any reports of damage or tsunami, agency official Nobuo Fukuda said.
Strong Earthquakes Trigger Tsunami Worries
ABC.Net.AU
Small tsunami 'may hit Tas'
Posted 43 minutes ago
The Weather Bureau says while the threat of a tsunami has eased on much of Australia's south-east coast, there is still a possibility a small tsunami may hit Tasmania.
The bureau issued a tsunami warning mid-afternoon after a large undersea earthquake off New Zealand.
A tsunami is no longer expected on the NSW and Victorian coasts, but the Bureau says there is still a chance a tsunami of about 35 centimetres could affect coastal regions in Tasmania's south-east.
Senior forecaster Simon McCulloch says he is not sure whether the earthquake will cause a tsunami.
"We do have a Tsunami gauge in the vicinity, which did measure a slight rise in the sea level around about that time, but it was also quite close to the epicentre of the earthquake, so that in itself doesn't mean that a tsunami has been generated," he said.
The St Helens volunteer coastguard says a small rise was observed in the ocean on Tasmania's east coast, following this evening's tsunami warning.
Coastguard commander Ian Hollingsworth says he noticed the surge at around 5.50pm AEST and estimates the water swelled by about 30 centimetres.
"What happened was fairly unusual in that there's no swell or anything like that at the moment, so you'd probably have to put it down to being that little bit of surge from what they're describing happened today," he said.
Small tsunami 'may hit Tas'
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