Tweeted somewhere in Auckland this morning: "A little scared about the Tsunami warning for NZ. It Probably won't stop me from going into the city for some shopping with my sister today."
Be brave, just be brave.
168 responses to this post
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Anyone in a position to eyeball the wave on the East Coast, if it arrives? Safely, of course.
And, of course, links are welcome.
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That's an incredibly huge earthquake. 8.3. Wellington could be vulnerable. I'm at a conference all day at Te Papa on the harbour waterfront - hopefully safer in the harbour than on the coast? But as Te Papa is a hub of earthquake experts it's probably a safe place to be (ie will evacuate the building if not).
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Relax. Tsunami waves travel at jet-plane speed across deep ocean. The epicentre is 190 km SW of PagoPago across deep ocean - less than half an hour away. The earthquake was at 6.48am our time and the all clear should have been issued before 7.30.
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You can watch the NZ Tsunami Gauge network here. You need to manually refresh the page, which seems to update at around 5 minute intervals. Nothing noticeable at Raoul Island as I write...
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10.50 am expected to reach Wellington. East coast earlier and Auckland later, according to latest reports. But likely to be revised during the morning I suppose. Inexact science and lots of 'variables'.
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hopefully safer in the harbour than on the coast?
er, nope. Not unless we dam the harbour entrance PDQ. Probably worse off.
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Oops, I tuned out early, when live reporter on waterfront at Pago Pago had seen nothing I thought well after any tsunami arrival time. But 1.5 m there means nothing to worry about here, and the tide is low.
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If the waves come from the north, why do the arrival times in Auckland come after those in Wellington?
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Tsunami schedule:
East Cape at 9.45am, Wellington 10.50, Auckland's east coast 11.12, West Coast 11.39, Lyttleton 11.55, Dunedin 12.31.
Poor old Dunedin. Always the last to know.
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Relax. Tsunami waves travel at jet-plane speed across deep ocean. The epicentre is 190 km SW of PagoPago across deep ocean - less than half an hour away. The earthquake was at 6.48am our time and the all clear should have been issued before 7.30.
Not quite, Chris. It's thousands of km from Pago Pago to NZ, and a tsunami tops out below 700km/h. Updated arrival times from here are:
East Cape at 9.44am
Gisborne 10am
North Cape 10.12 am
Napier 10.40 am
Wellington 10.50 am
Auckland (east coast) 11.12 am
Auckland (west) 11.39 am
Lyttelton 11.55am
New Plymouth 12.17pm
Nelson 12.23 pm
Dunedin 12.31 pm -
If the waves come from the north, why do the arrival times in Auckland come after those in Wellington?
Check out the animation of the Indian Ocean tsunami: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Tsunami_characteristics
See how it bends and lenses around land masses? Hence the different arrival times.
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I meant the time of wave travel to Samoa, and thought the non-observation of waves there half an hour later (or non-reporting at least, and given PagoPago is on that SW side of the island towards the epicentre) was evidence enough that there was no major tsunami generated.
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umm, non-observation? You mean like the reported three-metre tsunami?
Also, the experts at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre think one's been generated. I'll take their educated guess over yours, thanks. -
Sue,
love the police in tolga bay - just popping down to the beach now to make sure nobody's down there
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Somewhat amusing (and/or worrying) exchange earlier on between Morning Report's Geoff Robinson and a Samoan correspondent (I didn't catch his name or where he was, Western Samoa?).
Robinson asked if everyone had moved to higher ground. Yes, replied the correspondent, except for him as he had to stay to report on what was happening...(at which point Robinson said he hoped the correspondent would move if he did see/hear anything of concern...)
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Interesting. Tauranga is not mentioned and it is a big low lying city........Could really be a Bay of Plenty
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What Don said about being more at risk within Wellington harbour.
This from Te Ara's excellent entry on NZ's tsunami history (about the 1855 Wairarapa earthquake:)About 20 minutes after the earthquake, tsunami waves surged into Wellington Harbour through its narrow entrance, then for many hours bounced repeatedly back and forth, reflected off the harbour sides. Water also flooded into Lyall Bay from Cook Strait and Evans Bay from Wellington Harbour, putting the low isthmus between them (the site of Wellington Airport) under nearly a metre of water.
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The Fire Service is certainly taking it very seriously. A bunch of appliances from coastal stations in the Bay of Plenty/Waikato have been instructed to move "to [a] safe location", and there are evacuations underway in Waihi.
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The wave is coming almost perpendicular to most of the coasts (I don't understand the Auckland thing either) - it's sweeping down the country from the north to south rather than gather up as it hits the continental shelf and coming full in (the Coromandel and East Cape and north facing parts around there of course will catch it full on)
Luckily it's school hols - we have a history here in Dunedin of teachers taking their class down to the beach to watch the tsunami come in
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JoJo,
People in Haumoana (coastal Hawke's Bay) have been advised to evacuate, but that poor little town floods if someone sneezes.
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@che_tibby says "reports of numerous surfers heading to coast in gisborne"
Of course.
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The damage in Samoa sounds significant.
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"reports of numerous surfers heading to coast in gisborne"
Do they do mass Darwins? Or is this one just considered too easy, like DUI or playing with matches on a petrol station forecourt?
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The Fire Service is certainly taking it very seriously. A bunch of appliances from coastal stations in the Bay of Plenty/Waikato have been instructed to move "to [a] safe location"
There were several engines parked up in Mt Victoria this morning for no apparent reason. I suppose that is what happens when they activate the crisis centre
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"reports of numerous surfers heading to coast in gisborne"
Do they do mass Darwins? Or is this one just considered too easy, like DUI or playing with matches on a petrol station forecourt?