Caribbean tsunami warning issued after Haiti quake

AFP/YahooNews | 1/12/10

[MizSterious]

Prayers for your loved ones, Silvie. And for all in that area.

[ichabod1]

It’s a tidal wave in the carribean not a tsunami. It breaks the other way.

[ichabod1]

It’s a tidal wave in the carribean not a tsunami it breaks the other way.

[ichabod1]

It’s a tidal wave in the carribean not a tsunami it breaks the other way.

[Godzilla]

Calling for the potential of a tsunami in the near area around the quake, but none forcast for the greater Carribean region.

[El Gato]

Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says possibility of local Tsunami with these arrival times. (EST is 5 hours earlier, CST is 6 hours earlier)

LOCATION FORECAST POINT COORDINATES ARRIVAL TIME
———————————————— —————— ——————
HAITI JEREMIE 18.6N 74.1W 2224Z 12 JAN
PORT-AU-PRINCE 18.5N 72.4W 2229Z 12 JAN
CAP-HAITEN 19.8N 72.2W 2255Z 12 JAN
CUBA BARACOA 20.4N 74.5W 2249Z 12 JAN
BAHAMAS GREAT INAGUA 20.9N 73.7W 2246Z 12 JAN
DOMINICAN REP PUERTO PLATA 19.8N 70.7W 2304Z 12 JAN
SANTO DOMINGO 18.5N 69.9W 2337Z 12 JAN

______________

So arrival times are past or in the next few minutes of this post. 5:00 PM CST is 2300Z

[nmh]

Butt, butt, Obama is our messiah!

How could this happen?

LOL!!!

[SilvieWaldorfMD]

My grandma lives near the Caribe Hilton.

[deport]

CLICK

TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER   1
NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI
2203 UTC TUE JAN 12 2010

THIS MESSAGE APPLIES TO COUNTRIES WITHIN AND BORDERING THE
CARIBBEAN SEA...EXCEPT FOR PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLANDS.

... A LOCAL TSUNAMI WATCH IS IN EFFECT ...

A TSUNAMI WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR

 HAITI / CUBA / BAHAMAS / DOMINICAN REP

FOR OTHER AREAS OF THE CARIBBEAN COVERED BY THIS MESSAGE...IT IS
FOR INFORMATION ONLY AT THIS TIME.

THIS BULLETIN IS ISSUED AS ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES.  ONLY
NATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE
DECISIONS REGARDING THE OFFICIAL STATE OF ALERT IN THEIR AREA AND
ANY ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN RESPONSE.

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

 ORIGIN TIME -  2153Z 12 JAN 2010
 COORDINATES -  18.5 NORTH   72.5 WEST 
 LOCATION    -  HAITI REGION
 MAGNITUDE   -  7.3

EVALUATION

 A DESTRUCTIVE WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI THREAT DOES NOT EXIST BASED ON     
 HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DATA.                             
                                                                     
 HOWEVER - THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF A LOCAL TSUNAMI THAT          
 COULD AFFECT COASTS LOCATED USUALLY NO MORE THAN A HUNDRED          
 KILOMETERS FROM THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES FOR THE       
 REGION NEAR THE EPICENTER SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS POSSIBILITY.      
 AREAS FURTHER FROM THE EPICENTER COULD EXPERIENCE SMALL SEA         
 LEVEL CHANGES AND STRONG OR UNUSUAL COASTAL CURRENTS.               

ESTIMATED INITIAL TSUNAMI WAVE ARRIVAL TIMES AT FORECAST POINTS
WITHIN THE WARNING AND WATCH AREAS ARE GIVEN BELOW. ACTUAL
ARRIVAL TIMES MAY DIFFER AND THE INITIAL WAVE MAY NOT BE THE
LARGEST. A TSUNAMI IS A SERIES OF WAVES AND THE TIME BETWEEN
SUCCESSIVE WAVES CAN BE FIVE MINUTES TO ONE HOUR.

 LOCATION         FORECAST POINT     COORDINATES     ARRIVAL TIME
 --------------------------------    ------------    ------------
 HAITI            JEREMIE            18.6N  74.1W    2224Z 12 JAN
                  PORT-AU-PRINCE     18.5N  72.4W    2229Z 12 JAN
                  CAP-HAITEN         19.8N  72.2W    2255Z 12 JAN
 CUBA             BARACOA            20.4N  74.5W    2249Z 12 JAN
 BAHAMAS          GREAT INAGUA       20.9N  73.7W    2246Z 12 JAN
 DOMINICAN REP    PUERTO PLATA       19.8N  70.7W    2304Z 12 JAN
                  SANTO DOMINGO      18.5N  69.9W    2337Z 12 JAN

ADDITIONAL BULLETINS WILL BE ISSUED BY THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI
WARNING CENTER FOR THIS EVENT AS MORE INFORMATION
BECOMES AVAILABLE.

[NELSON111]

It’s a tidal wave in the carribean not a tsunami it breaks the other way.

That might be the local term...or common usage...but the technical term for this would be a tsunami. This isn't like calling a cyclone a hurricane...

[don-o]

Please post when you find they are OK. Prayers for all those poor people.

[SilvieWaldorfMD]

Interesting map. What’s the link? My family lives in Old San Juan.

[Mount Athos]

usually 7.5 is the minimum for a tsunami, unless there is a landslide

[aruanan]

It’s a tidal wave in the carribean not a tsunami it breaks the other way.

Any wave caused by displacement of water by an earthquake is a tsunami.

[Marmolade]

My sister and brother-in-law are also on a cruise down that way. I believe they are due back in FL tomorrow some time.

[VeniVidiVici]

Here’s the link to that website that has the maps -
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/

[aruanan]

Haiti? I didn’t know that area was particularly active.

Remember that the Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles are a big arc of islands. In the Lesser Antilles there is string of volcanoes. When I was in the Dominican Republic there was an earthquake. Haiti is on the west side of Hispaniola. Hispaniola is on the edge of an active plate boundary zone between the North American plate and the northeast corner of the Caribbean plate. It's a geological happening place.

[halo66]

Yes...Monserratt comes to mind.

[aruanan]

Here's more about that region, centering on the risk to Puerto Rico (less than 100 miles away from Hispaniola):

The region has high seismicity and large earthquakes (figure 2). Examples include a magnitude 7.5 earthquake centered northwest of Puerto Rico in 1943, and magnitude 8.1 and 6.9 earthquakes north of Hispaniola in 1946 and 1953, respectively. Historically, other large earthquakes have also struck the area, such as one in 1787 (magnitude~8.1), possibly in the Puerto Rico Trench, and one in 1867 (magnitude~7.5) in the Anegada Trough (figure 1). A draft U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) hazard map places equal probability for damaging ground motion for Mayaguez in western Puerto Rico as for Seattle, Washington. Other Puerto Rican cities also have substantial risk.The hazard from tsunamis is also apparent. Immediately after the 1946 earthquake, a tsunami struck northeastern Hispaniola and moved inland for several kilometers. Some reports indicate that nearly 1,800 people drowned. A 1918 magnitude 7.5 earthquake resulted in a tsunami that killed at least 91 people in northwestern Puerto Rico (figure 4). Eyewitness reports of an 1867 Virgin Islands tsunami gave a maximum wave height of >7 m in Frederiksted, St. Croix, where a large naval vessel was left on top of a pier. Essentially, all of the known causes of tsunamis are present in the Caribbean -- earthquakes, submarine landslides, submarine volcanic eruptions, subaerial pyroclastic flows into the ocean, and major tsunamis called teletsunamis. Because of its high population density and extensive development near the coast, Puerto Rico has a significant risk for earthquakes and tsunamis.

[VeniVidiVici]

It's a geological happening place.

Looking at the maps, it sure is. I guess I have heard of a volcano or two down that way but usually quakes in the Pacific take top honors and get all the press.