Tsunami off Samoa

amaru

amaru

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My sis in law has text my wife about a hour ago advsing they have been evacuated, she lives in Gisborne. Where abouts are you Magnolia??
 
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[FnG]magnolia

[FnG]magnolia

[FnG]magnolia

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We're in Auckland. No one seems clear whether this will come to nothing or cause serious damage. I've got to admit to being pretty apprehensive although my kiwi work colleagues seem pretty relaxed.

Apparently parts of Samoa were flattened and there are reports of more than 3 dead on other news sites.
 

Kristoph

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How long ago did this happen? And what sort speed / time could a tsunami travel towards NZ?

Are we talking an hour or two?

Edit;

It struck at 1748 GMT, so I'm guessing any warnings now are for potential aftershocks?
 

CaptainComedy

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[FnG]magnolia;14991470 said:
We're in Auckland. No one seems clear whether this will come to nothing or cause serious damage. I've got to admit to being pretty apprehensive although my kiwi work colleagues seem pretty relaxed.

Apparently parts of Samoa were flattened and there are reports of more than 3 dead on other news sites.
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well don't be lax about it, you can either a. do nothing or b. do something.... the tsunami could a. kill you or b. not kill you. I guess depends how safe you feel determines the impending result.
 

~J~

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Events like this show the power (if that's what it's called) of Twitter.

Some stories on there now with people posting pictures, it's looking pretty, well scary I have to admit!
 

amaru

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Just had a text from the sis in law and she is back home, she lives right on the coast and said all they have had is a increase in the surge and can see surfers in the sea as we speak. sounds like Gisborne had a lucky escape.
 

Amp34

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Greenlizard0 said:
8.3! :eek:
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Not that big as earthquakes go... However it's not the size of the earthquake that matters with tsunamis, it is the movement of the seabed itself, either due to the earthquake or a slump of material (off for example a continental shelf). The slump could in fact cause the earthquake.

Obviously not a huge amount of material was uplifted/moved in this case or the wave would have been much bigger.

(The boxing day 2004 earthquake was a biggy, almost ten times bigger, around 9.0 and caused uplift of several metres over tens-hundreds of miles)

Kristoph said:
Yeah, although reading someones comment on twitter, apparently it's the length of wave that does the damage. I suppose if it's 40cm, but 10x the volume or size of a normal 40cm wave, it could probably cause surges.
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Yeah it's the length of the wave more than the height, the sheer volume of water pushing from behind the front is the main cause. A tsunami wave will only be a few cm-tens of cm in the open ocean, but 10-100km long, it's only when it hits the shallows that the front slows down and the back catches up making a higher wave with a huge amount of momentum.
 
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