Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Tsunami warning?

The breaking news at left suggests an Indonesian earthquake had tsunami potential.

However, NOAA's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center indicates this event is not tsunamigenic (my word of the day):
TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 1746Z 11 FEB 2009

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME - 1735Z 11 FEB 2009
COORDINATES - 3.8 NORTH 126.8 EAST
DEPTH - SHALLOWER THAN 100 KM
LOCATION - TALAUD ISLANDS INDONESIA
MAGNITUDE - 7.4

EVALUATION

NO DESTRUCTIVE WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS BASED ON
HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DATA.

HOWEVER - EARTHQUAKES OF THIS SIZE SOMETIMES GENERATE LOCAL
TSUNAMIS THAT CAN BE DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS LOCATED WITHIN
A HUNDRED KILOMETERS OF THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES
IN THE REGION OF THE EPICENTER SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS
POSSIBILITY AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION.
Still, quite an event on F&M's seismograph (click on the seismogram for a larger image):

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