New Zealand earthquake
One of the strongest earthquakes to hit the South Pacific in recent history triggered tsunami warnings across the region and forced thousands of people in New Zealand to evacuate coastal areas on Friday.
Small tsunamis were seen, but minor damage occurred in the hours after the warnings.
The magnitude 8.1 earthquake in the Kermadyk Islands region, about 1,000 kilometers from two major islands in New Zealand, was the largest in a series of earthquakes over a period of several hours.
Two previous earthquakes had a magnitude of 7.4 and 7.3.
The tsunami threat caused traffic jams in New Zealand as people scrambled to reach higher ground.
Residents recorded videos of small wave heights in some places, including Tucumaru Bay near Gisborne.
In the afternoon, the National Emergency Management Agency said the threat was over and people could return to their homes, although it had asked them to stay away from the beaches.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said: "It is hard not to feel that our country is going through a series of bad luck when you have an earthquake, tsunami warning and an epidemic to face all of this in one day.
Emergency Management Minister Kerry Allan said people followed the warning.
"They felt the long or strong earthquakes and knew to hold their bags and head to the heights," she said.
"I can only thank and appreciate the tireless efforts of the men and women from the top and bottom of the coast who knew how to act, when to act and what to do.
Warnings were issued as far away as South America
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned that the earthquake could cause tsunamis of up to 3 meters in Vanuatu and up to 1 meter in Tonga, other islands in the South Pacific and the Pacific coast of South America.
Tsunami warnings across the Pacific have now been canceled, but residents are told to remain vigilant.
Waves 30 cm above tidal levels were measured by oceanometers off Vanuatu, New Zealand and Australia.
Smaller waves have been measured elsewhere in the South Pacific.
Footage from American Samoa posted on social media after the earthquake showed schoolchildren singing as they gathered to evacuate.
Footage from Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, showed what was referred to as a remarkable rise in the ocean.
Local people in Vanuatu also expressed their frustration at the lack of communications from the emergency authorities.
Chilean authorities ordered people to go off the beaches. Guatemala issued a tsunami warning, and authorities in El Salvador ordered people to take precautions. Mexico said there was no threat.
The US Geological Survey said the largest earthquake occurred at the junction of the tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean and Australia and surpassed the largest previously recorded earthquake in the region, with a magnitude of 8.0 in 1976.
Jennifer Eccles, a seismologist at the University of Auckland, said the earthquake was at the upper end of the scale for only those in the ocean crust on Earth.
Source:
ABC News
Semantic words:
nz earthquake
tsunami new zealand
New Zealand
earthquake nz
New Zealand tsunami
Tsunami
earthquake
nz tsunami
Norfolk Island
nz earthquake today
Kermadec Islands
earthquake new zealand
Tsunami warning
nz news
new zealand news
nz tsunami warning
new zealand earthquake 2021
nz earthquake 2021
tsunami warning nz
earthquake today
new zealand earthquake today
NZ
