Magnitude 7.6 - SOLOMON ISLANDS

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program ^ | 01 Apr 07 | USGS

[GATOR NAVY]

Earthquake Details

Magnitude	7.6
Date-Time	Sunday, April 1, 2007 at 20:39:56 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Monday, April 2, 2007 at 7:39:56 AM = local time at epicenter
Location	8.474°S, 156.950°E
Depth	10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region		SOLOMON ISLANDS
Distances	45 km (25 miles) SSE of Gizo, New Georgia Islands, Solomon Isl. 205 km (125 miles) S of Chirovanga, Choiseul, Solomon Islands 345 km (215 miles) WNW of HONIARA, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands 2145 km (1330 miles) NNE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 9.1 km (5.7 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters	Nst=148, Nph=148, Dmin=345.9 km, Rmss=1.2 sec, Gp= 32°, M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=6
	Source	USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID	us2007aqbk

• This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

[GATOR NAVY]

MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY

GAUGE LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL PER
HONIARA SB 9.4S 160.0E 2235Z 0.14M = 0.5FT 70MIN
VANUATU VU 17.8S 168.3E 2351Z 0.11M = 0.4FT 26MIN

LAT - LATITUDE (N=NORTH, S=SOUTH)
LON - LONGITUDE (E=EAST, W=WEST)
TIME - TIME OF THE MEASUREMENT (Z = UTC = GREENWICH TIME)
AMPL - TSUNAMI AMPLITUDE MEASURED RELATIVE TO NORMAL SEA LEVEL.
IT IS ...NOT... CREST-TO-TROUGH WAVE HEIGHT.
IT IS ...NOT... CREST-TO-TROUGH WAVE HEIGHT.
VALUES ARE GIVEN IN BOTH METERS(M) AND FEET(FT).
PER - PERIOD OF TIME IN MINUTES(MIN) FROM ONE WAVE 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.

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/messages/pacific/2007/pacific.2007.04.02.000828.txt

[HangnJudge]

Lots of aftershocks now,

8.0 6.7 6.4 5.8 5.0

At least it seems to be calming down

[Chena]

You're ahead of us on the raingutter chore. We took ours down too and need to put it back up. This warmer weather has sure been good medicine for those of us who took ill with cabin fever.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

BBC Report:

Tsunami strikes Solomon Islands

******************************************************************

Last Updated: Monday, 2 April 2007, 00:37 GMT 01:37 UK

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Tsunami strikes Solomon Islands

A tsunami has swept ashore in the Solomon Islands following a strong undersea earthquake in the South Pacific Ocean.

Waves said to be several metres high crashed into some of the Solomons' western islands. There were unconfirmed reports of people missing.

Tsunami warnings were also issued for Papua New Guinea, north-east Australia, and some other Pacific islands.

The quake measured 8.0 and hit at 0740 local time on Monday (2040 GMT Sunday).

It struck 345km (215 miles) north-west of the Solomon Islands' capital Honiara, north-east of Australia, the US Geological Survey said, at a depth of 10km (six miles) below the surface.

Sergeant Godfrey Abiah of the Solomons police force said the waves had hit the town of Gizo, in the New Georgia Islands region in the west of the Solomons, which was only 45km (25 miles) from the epicentre of the quake.

There was 10ft of water rushing through town Harry Wickham Hotel worker, Gizo

He said police in Gizo had been urging people to leave coastal areas when the tsunami hit, but communications were lost soon afterwards.

"We have lost radio contact with the two police stations down there and we're not getting any clear picture," he told The Associated Press.

Julian McLeod, a Solomon Islands disaster management official, said: "Two villages were reported to have been completely inundated.

"We have received reports of four people missing."

Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported that at least three people had been killed.

Evacuation

Harry Wickham, a hotel worker in Gizo, told New Zealand television by phone that many buildings along the water front had been damaged.

"There was 10ft of water rushing through town," he said.

Britain's deputy high commissioner in Honiara told the BBC that four people were missing from Mono Island. He said all the residents of Taro Island had been evacuated.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a much smaller wave, of 15cm (6in) had been reported in Honiara.

The centre initially issued a warning for all countries in the South Pacific region.

Later it was downscaled, but authorities in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, north-eastern Australia, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Fiji, were being advised to stay on alert.

Experts in Japan and Hawaii were also monitoring the situation.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Rocking and Rolling......lots of aftershocks.....

********************************************************

Update time = Mon Apr 2 0:44:35 UTC 2007

	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	LAT deg	LON deg	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	2.5	2007/04/02 00:13:29	37.378	-118.380	13.8	CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP	5.0	2007/04/02 00:10:56	-7.077	155.888	10.0	SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP	3.2	2007/04/01 23:34:04	53.815	-163.003	50.0	UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP	5.8	2007/04/01 22:57:23	-7.321	155.995	10.0	SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP	2.6	2007/04/01 22:39:27	63.317	-146.884	1.0	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	3.8	2007/04/01 22:39:15	63.047	-150.882	25.0	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	3.0	2007/04/01 21:55:10	64.544	-152.279	15.0	CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP	5.7	2007/04/01 21:45:38	-7.432	155.581	10.0	SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP	6.4	2007/04/01 21:11:34	-7.441	155.774	10.0	SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP	6.7	2007/04/01 20:47:32	-7.133	155.661	10.0	SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP	8.0	2007/04/01 20:39:56	-8.453	156.957	10.0	SOLOMON ISLANDS

[Cindy]

UPDATE:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/4/2/worldupdates/2007-04-02T060453Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-292917-1&sec=Worldupdates

"Sixty buildings may have collapsed in Solomons - Kyodo"

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "TOKYO (Reuters) - About 60 buildings may have collapsed in the Solomon Islands after a powerful earthquake struck the region on Monday morning, Kyodo news agency quoted a local official as saying."

[chickenNdumplings]

Thanks for the info. The doctor is based in Honiara. But I can't help but cry for the Sisters and all the people on Gizo. I know that is wrong. I should only pray.

[HangnJudge]

http://www.pacificislandtravel.com/solomon_islands/about_destin/gizo.html

Gizo is the second largest town in the Solomon Islands, and serves as the provincial centre to the Western Province. It is situated on the island of Ghizo (different spelling, same pronounciation). With the appearance of a shanty town, the main street runs along the waterfront lined with small stores and an open air market. Views in most directions show palm tree studded islands ringed by coral reef and clear waters.

[HangnJudge]

I wonder what Giza looks like now...

[GATOR NAVY]

A 10 foot wall of water couldn't have done any good.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

[EnjoyingLife]

This was a bad earthquake. I sincerely hope the damage doesn't look like these photos:

1. http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20050103.htm
2. http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20050107.htm
3. http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20050131.htm

Links via "ChamorroBible.org: The Great Earthquake and Catastrophic Tsunami of 2004"
http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-The-Great-Earthquake-and-Catastrophic-Tsunami-of-2004.htm

[Candor7]

Just so you know, my son, who is teaching in Kanazawa Japan, reported that a Mag 6 earthquake occurred off the coast about 60 miles northwest of Kanazawa. On a nearby peninsula, there were land slides. 4 killed.

Seismic activity seems to be picking up around the Pacific tectonic plates.

Maybe Hawaii will find a new volcano if this keeps up.

[bd476]

Those are some big aftershocks, Ernest.

[Strategerist]

In the last 100 years, there have been an average of 18 Magnitude 7+ quakes a year worldwide, on average.

We're 3 months in to 2007, and there should have been 4.5 such quakes.

We've had 4 quakes over magnitude 7. So we're running a bit BELOW normal for large quakes this year, and there were only 11 such quakes each year in 2005 and 2006.

[kimmie7]

I see PNG is on alert...

just at tonight's church I was teaching the youngsters about PNG and some of our denomination's first missionaries to that area.

[kimmie7]

prayers up.

[bravo whiskey]

glad i don't have any air bases there (war in the pacific (WiTP) computer game reference)
seriously, i have been a big ww2 buff ever since i could read and i don't recall ever hearing of an earthquake anywhere in the world during ww2.

[GATOR NAVY]

See post #96 in this thread. I'm sure there were the normal number of earthquakes during the war, but people had other things to worry about. Vesuvius erupted in 1944 during the Italian campaign.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I was just looking thru the list and there over 10 sizable shocks since the 8.0,....but all are at the same depth....which seems strange....wonder if there is just some kind of flaw in their calculations.....