Saturday, January 21, 2017

Earthquake Strikes Off Papua New Guinea Coast, Tsunami Alert Ended!!! Story Updated Now:

NEARBY City Population: 36,000 like 5 Miles from epicenter of this 8 Richters Earthquake!!! Here's story copied from link that follows as of 11:30pm Central Time late Saturday, Tsunami Update now follows:

A magnitude-8 earthquake has struck 47 kilometres west of Arawa on Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea at a depth of 167 kilometres, the United States Geological Survey says.
Papua New Guinea earthquake: Tsunami threat passes after magnitude-7.9 tremor near Bougainville

Updated about 8 hours ago
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Map: Map showing the epicentre of the earthquake.
Related Story: Evacuations, power cuts as magnitude-6.9 earthquake hits near Fiji
Related Story: Residents flee to hills after quake off Papua New Guinea, tsunami threat passes
Related Story: Aftershocks hit Solomon Islands after magnitude-7.8 quake
Map: Papua New Guinea

A magnitude-7.9 earthquake has struck off the coast of Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea, causing damage and blackouts but no tsunami.

The quake struck at 3:30pm (AEDT) at a depth of 136 kilometres, the United States Geological Survey said. It was initially reported to be of magnitude 8.0.

No casualties were reported, but there was damage in parts of central Bougainville and the major town of Arawa, Aloysius Laukai, manager of New Dawn FM Bougainville radio station, said in an email.

The provincial capital of Buka was blacked out and residents of the southern town of Buin were moved to higher ground as a precaution against a potential tsunami, Mr Laukai said, but all tsunami warnings were later lifted.

An initial tsunami alert for several Pacific islands was wound back to cover just PNG and the neighbouring Solomon Islands, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre later said the tsunami threat had passed safely for those countries.

The Bureau of Meteorology also confirmed that there was no tsunami threat to Australia.

The greatest tsunami threat had been to Bougainville and that threat had passed without any report of a tsunami, said Chris McKee, assistant director at PNG's Geophysical Observatory Office in Port Moresby.

"I suspect that because of the great depth of the earthquake, there was probably no significant tsunami," Mr McKee said.

Solomon Islands government official George Herming said he was not aware of any major tremors being felt in his country or any tsunami.

Earthquakes are common in PNG, which sits on the Pacific's 'Ring of Fire', a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.

Bougainville Island is one of the islands that make up the Autonomous Region of Bougainville within PNG which is home to around 300,000 people

FROM: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-22/earthquake-hits-papua-new-guinea-tsunami-possible/8201724

FROM: Reuters/AP


(Previous) TSUNAMI UPDATE FROM Pacific Warning Center:


187
WEPA40 PHEB 220541
TSUPAC

TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 4
NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI
0539 UTC SUN JAN 22 2017

...PTWC TSUNAMI THREAT MESSAGE...


PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS
---------------------------------

* MAGNITUDE 7.9
* ORIGIN TIME 0430 UTC JAN 22 2017
* COORDINATES 6.1 SOUTH 155.2 EAST
* DEPTH 168 KM / 104 MILES
* LOCATION SOLOMON ISLANDS


EVALUATION
----------

* AN EARTHQUAKE WITH A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 7.9 OCCURRED IN
THE SOLOMON ISLANDS AT 0430 UTC ON SUNDAY JANUARY 22 2017.

* BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA... HAZARDOUS TSUNAMI WAVES ARE
FORECAST FOR SOME COASTS.


TSUNAMI THREAT FORECAST
-----------------------

* TSUNAMI WAVES REACHING 0.3 TO 1 METERS ABOVE THE TIDE LEVEL
ARE POSSIBLE FOR SOME COASTS OF

SOLOMON ISLANDS AND PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

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