STORM2K

Strong Earthquake in Islands off Japan

More information later.

For those interested - this is the little bit of info I could find.

Link



EDIT: URL reduced to hyperlink to preserve scrolling. --senorpepr.

Hawaii also has a tsunami watch but the wave is not expected to be high there.

Above is where the epicenter of the 7.8 quake was,where the red box is at graphic.

Just heard on the news that it's magnitude was upped to an 8.1 and that parts of Alaska now have a tsunami warning out too!

The initial report from the JMA was a 8.1.

Here is the warning map from an hour ago.

More information here

The readings varie from 8.1 to 7.8 but those are preliminary.Later today they will reveal the exact magnitud.But regardless being 7.8 or 8.1 are strong quakes anyway that can cause extensive damage.Thankfully this area is not a dense populated one.

The greatest threat of a significant tsunami is really to the Japan. This is not to sound the all clear but with nothing being report so far, I think we are looking good again this time.

Tsunami Advisory issued earlier for the US West coast. No damaging Tsumami expected:

http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/message000596-01.htm

Update: Tsunami Warnings have been dropped for Japan and Russia. Still in in effect for a small part of Alaska. Tsunami Watch now includes part of Washington State

http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/message000596-04.htm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15726732/



The good news is that the 2 tsunamis were not very tall and hit in sparse populated areas.Also no reports of casualties at this time.

cycloneye wrote:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15726732/



The good news is that the 2 tsunamis were not very tall and hit in sparse populated areas.Also no reports of casualties at this time.

That's excellent news.

40cm is the highest wave reported so far. http://www.jma.go.jp/en/tsunami/observation_1.html

The PTWC:

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 003
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 1317Z 15 NOV 2006

THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE PACIFIC BASIN EXCEPT
ALASKA - BRITISH COLUMBIA - WASHINGTON - OREGON - CALIFORNIA.

... A TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH ARE IN EFFECT ...

A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR

RUSSIA / JAPAN / MARCUS IS. / WAKE IS. / MIDWAY IS. /
N. MARIANAS / GUAM / MARSHALL IS. / TAIWAN

A TSUNAMI WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR

CHUUK / POHNPEI / YAP / PHILIPPINES / KOSRAE / BELAU /
JOHNSTON IS. / HAWAII / INDONESIA / KIRIBATI / NAURU /
PAPUA NEW GUINEA / HOWLAND-BAKER / PALMYRA IS. / SOLOMON IS. /
TUVALU / VIETNAM

FOR ALL OTHER PACIFIC AREAS, THIS MESSAGE IS AN ADVISORY ONLY.

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME - 1114Z 15 NOV 2006
COORDINATES - 46.7 NORTH 153.5 EAST
LOCATION - KURIL ISLANDS
MAGNITUDE - 8.1

MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY

GAUGE LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL PER
------------------- ----- ------ ----- ------ -----
HANASAKI HOKKAIDO 43.3N 145.6E 1243Z 0.30M 64MIN
KUSHIRO HOKKAIDO 43.0N 144.3E - 0.25M -

TIME - TIME OF THE MEASUREMENT
AMPL - AMPLITUDE IN METERS FROM MIDDLE TO CREST OR MIDDLE
TO TROUGH OR HALF OF THE CREST TO TROUGH
PER - PERIOD OF TIME FROM ONE WAVE CREST TO THE NEXT

EVALUATION

SEA LEVEL READINGS INDICATE A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED. IT MAY HAVE
BEEN DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER AND
COULD ALSO BE A THREAT TO MORE DISTANT COASTS. AUTHORITIES SHOULD
TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION IN RESPONSE TO THIS POSSIBILITY. THIS
CENTER WILL CONTINUE TO MONITOR SEA LEVEL DATA TO DETERMINE THE
EXTENT AND SEVERITY OF THE THREAT.

FOR ALL AREAS - WHEN NO MAJOR WAVES ARE OBSERVED FOR TWO HOURS
AFTER THE ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL OR DAMAGING WAVES HAVE NOT
OCCURRED FOR AT LEAST TWO HOURS THEN LOCAL AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME
THE THREAT IS PASSED. DANGER TO BOATS AND COASTAL STRUCTURES CAN
CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS DUE TO RAPID CURRENTS. AS LOCAL
CONDITIONS CAN CAUSE A WIDE VARIATION IN TSUNAMI WAVE ACTION THE
ALL CLEAR DETERMINATION MUST BE MADE BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES.

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/pr/ptwc/wmsg

BTW it's 8.1 on the moment magnitude scale, 7.7 on Richter.

British Columbia has put coastal towns on alert for evacuation notices. No mandatory evacuations yet.

All warnings and watches cancelled outside of Japan, where the whole northeast coast is under a tsunami attention.

Japan warnings just canceled:

http://www.nhk.or.jp/english/

WOW... 16 inches, everyone run.

Brent wrote:WOW... 16 inches, everyone run.

They cannot tell until the wave hits the coast.

True. This just illustrates how poor our scientific knowledge is of the mechanisms behind the creation, and sustainment of tsunamis. We still have a lot to learn. I only hope, and pray, that we learn some of it before the next major event occurs.