Tsunami Warning Center News

A magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit the Gulf of Alaska in the early hours of Tuesday, prompting warnings of a possible tsunami down the Canadian and U.S. west coast and as far away as Hawaii. Local radio on the Alaskan island of Kodiak, close to the epicenter, urged listeners to move away from coastal areas. "This is a tsunami warning. this is not a drill. Please get out to higher ground," said the announcer on KMXT public radio. "If you are on the flats, get up on one of the hills ... There were no immediate reports of damage or injury. The quake, initially measured at magnitude 8.2, hit around 250 km (160 miles) southeast of Chiniak, Alaska at a depth of 25 km at 0931 GMT, the U.S. Geological Survey said. "If you are located in this coastal area, move inland to higher ground.

A magnitude 8 earthquake Monday shook the Aleutian Islands of Alaska to the west, prompting authorities to issue a tsunami alert local, the United States Geological Survey and the Tsunami Warning Center said Pacific. The warning covering the coastal areas of the U.S. state of Alaska from Nikolski to Attu, the center said, adding that the authorities were assessing the level of risk to other coastal areas of the United States and Canada. The epicenter of the quake was about 23 kilometers of Little Sitkin Island, Alaska, at a depth of 114 kilometers, the USGS said (by its acronym in English).  (Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington. Published in Spanish by Bill Trott)

A powerful earth quake identified by the US Geological Survey as situated about 52 miles north-west of the mining area of Iquique killed at least 5 people, and 6ft waves have hit some areas of Chile. Power cuts, fires  landslides are also mentioned by BBC News. Citing the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, the BBC says that an initial warning was issued for Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Panama, but later all watches and alerts were later lifted except for Chile and Peru. Tsunami watches – in which the danger of tidal waves is deemed to be less serious – had been in place for Costa Rica…

Tsunami warnings issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency and other weather service providers will be sent to vessels via NYK's 'e-missions' system. The warnings are intended to allow affected vessels to determine the best course of action through contact with those on shore and use of the Tsunami-Response Guidelines NYK developed and released last year. When a tsunami warning is issued, a tsunami alert will be sent (in English) to NYK vessel operators and about 800 vessels that make use of NYK 'e-missions'.

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) (NYSE: SAI) announced it has been awarded a contract for the production and delivery of an SAIC Tsunami Buoy (STB) system by the Far Eastern Ecological Center, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, for the Far Eastern Regional Hydrometeorological Research Institute (FERHRI), Vladivostok, Russian Federation. The STB system will be one of the key sensors monitored by the Tsunami Warning Center in the Russian Far East, and will serve as the ocean segment of the Russian Federation tsunami warning system network currently in development.

The NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued a bulletin cancelling its prior tsunami warning. The warning was based on a strong earthquake in the Samoa Islands region. Waves in excess of 5 feet were experienced in that region and the death toll there could reach 100. Smaller waves were observed elsewhere in the Pacific basin, little damage was reported outside of the Samoa Islands. (9/29/09). (Source: Bryant’s Maritime News)