Russian Quake Triggers Pacific Tsunami Alert
Early on Wednesday, a magnitude 8.7 earthquake was registered off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Officials immediately warned it may generate a tsunami of up to 4 metres on exposed Pacific Ocean coasts.
A Russian official said a tsunami with a wave height of between 3m and 4m was recorded in parts of the Kamchatka region.
In the central Pacific, Hawaiian officials urged immaediate action to prevent loss of life and property. The tsunami was estimated to arrive at 7:17PM HST, Tuesday - as it crosses the international dateline.
The Japanese government also raised its tsunami alert and issued an emergency warning. It said expected a tsunami as high as 3m was expected to arrive on north and west facing Pacific Coasts.
The US National Tsunami Warning Center, based in Alaska, issued a warning for parts of the Alaskan Aleutian Islands, and a watch for portions of the West Coast, including California, Oregon, and Washington.
“Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors,” Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was at a shallow depth of 19.3 km, and was centred about 125 km east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000 on the southern end of the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was the embarkation point for Spencer Frost and Guy Williment's pioneering surf expedition to Kamchatka.
The earthquake was about 250km away from Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost of the country’s four big islands, and was felt only slightly, according to Japan’s NHK television.
In November 1952, a magnitude 9.0 quake in Kamchatka caused damage but no reported deaths despite creating a reported 9.1-metre wave in Hawaii.
Comments
Yikes.
surfs up
1m-3m waves expected in the Solomons and Hawaii, 0.3m-1m waves expected in PNG and Fiji (and most of the South Pacific).
sorry to be a dope, what happens in front and behind a tsunami? does it drag swell along with it? seems an insensitive question, to ask about the surf prospects around a potentially devastating event. like a cyclone.
Potentially followup waves, some of which may be higher than the original. Heavy, erratic currents and turbulence in its wake that can persist for hours.
No reports of size estimates for the US West Coast, but interestingly, the US Tsunami Warning Center says Ecuador could be struck by waves of more than 3 metres.
3-6ft forecast for Crescent City, CA, around 12:30am local.
Unsure if that's Face Feet or Surfers Feet.
Probably worth pointing out that my interest in this event extends beyond my usual high level of oceanographic fascination, to that of my own circumstance - I'm in California right now, staying in a beachside property.
My fave thing about swellnet is how all the tendrils it offers invite us to engage more in the world. I'm reading a Sam George book @Lanky recommended, and have been pondering how well an artificial reef might work where Sam George currently lives on the very protected Whidbey Island off Seattle. The unidirectionality of the swell it gets, having to go up the sound, struck me as a potential bonus when reading Evan Watterson's description of Albany's artificial reef.. Could be an alt (closer) Tofino with the right conditions..
So now I'm wondering if this tsunami will bring something to Whidbey Island.. and Tofino and the surrounding breaks for that matter.
(again, I hope people are safe, this is all distant and detached pondering..)
Sam lives on Whidbey Island?
Ace Boomer journo Drew Kampion also lives on Whidbey.
As does longtime Swellnet reader Zeno.
(hey up, Zeno, if you're reading this, I will reply in full soonish)
Drew and Sam live 20 mins from each other apparently.. @Zeno ground-zero tsunami interview with 'em..?
I've been paddle boarding up the @ base6
The currents are insane as is how clear the water is was .
Brace for impact!
The planet's a bit angry at the moment. Seismic and volcanic shit going on all over the place. Mt Rainier has been grumbling off the charts lately and Ruapehu has been a bit restless as well. A sign of things to come maybe??
Just got a public safety message on my phone, from the CA government.
Lucky you're not hispanic. They don't get warnings.
? Por que , no entendes?
8.8 shallow quake is a big one, Guardian just said it's in the top 10 biggest on record,
good luck @thermalben, I'd be heading somewhere nice and high to ride this out, just in case.
Hopefully it's not a tsunami quake.
Not much measured on the way to Hawaii (Midway Island). Maybe 0.6ft..
Gotta remember there'll be a trough...
Here it is, about 0.7m.
It's out there, travelling at 545 km/h across the North Pacific, yet only ankle to knee high.
Not sure if we'll see anything but, if so, the Pipeline camera is the best bet.
Tsunami Warning in Effect for;
* CALIFORNIA, The coast from Cape Mendocino, California to the Oregon/Cal. Border
Tsunami Advisory in Effect for;
* CALIFORNIA, The coast from The Cal./Mexico Border to Cape Mendocino, California including San Francisco Bay
Latest alert:
TSUNAMI THREAT FORECAST
-----------------------
* TSUNAMI WAVES REACHING MORE THAN 3 METERS ABOVE THE TIDE
LEVEL ARE POSSIBLE ALONG SOME COASTS OF
ECUADOR... NORTHWESTERN HAWAIIAN ISLANDS... AND RUSSIA.
* TSUNAMI WAVES REACHING 1 TO 3 METERS ABOVE THE TIDE LEVEL ARE
POSSIBLE ALONG SOME COASTS OF
CHILE... COSTA RICA... FRENCH
POLYNESIA... HAWAII... JAPAN... JARVIS ISLAND...
JOHNSTON ATOLL... KIRIBATI... MIDWAY ISLAND... PALMYRA
ISLAND... PERU... SAMOA... AND SOLOMON ISLANDS.
* TSUNAMI WAVES REACHING 0.3 TO 1 METERS ABOVE THE TIDE LEVEL
ARE POSSIBLE FOR SOME COASTS OF
ANTARCTICA... AUSTRALIA... CHUUK... COLOMBIA... COOK
ISLANDS... EL SALVADOR... FIJI... GUATEMALA... HOWLAND AND
BAKER... INDONESIA... KERMADEC ISLANDS... KOSRAE...
MARSHALL ISLANDS... MEXICO... NAURU... NEW CALEDONIA...
NEW ZEALAND... NICARAGUA... NIUE... NORTHERN MARIANAS...
PALAU... PANAMA... PAPUA NEW GUINEA... PHILIPPINES...
PITCAIRN ISLANDS... POHNPEI... TAIWAN... TOKELAU...
TONGA... TUVALU... VANUATU... WAKE ISLAND... WALLIS AND
FUTUNA... AMERICAN SAMOA... GUAM... AND YAP.
MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY
GAUGE LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL PER
------------------- ----- ------ ----- --------------- -----
CHICHIJIMA JP 27.1N 142.2E 0357Z 0.29M / 1.0FT 16MIN
WAKE US 19.3N 166.6E 0402Z 0.22M / 0.7FT 14MIN
MIDWAY 28.2N 177.4W 0328Z 0.31M / 1.0FT 44MIN
ATKA AK 52.2N 174.2W 0322Z 0.31M / 1.0FT 68MIN
HANASAKI HOKKAIDO J 43.3N 145.6E 0158Z 0.32M / 1.0FT 58MIN
DART 46413 48.0N 174.2W 0144Z 0.19M / 0.6FT 40MIN
KUSHIRO JP 43.0N 144.4E 0121Z 0.33M / 1.1FT 76MIN
DART 21415 50.2N 171.9E 0117Z 0.20M / 0.6FT 08MIN
DART 21414 49.0N 178.2E 0103Z 0.28M / 0.9FT 32MIN
DART 21416 48.1N 163.5E 0003Z 0.90M / 3.0FT 24MIN
So is that last figure the period in minutes? If so, what does 1ft@68 minutes turn into when it hits the shore?
'Bout three feet Hawaiian.
Seriously though, tsunamis do not necessarily display breaking waves, so you can't think of it like you would a surfing wave... it's often more like a storm surge. The 60 min period is a good indication for how long it takes for the water to recede and rise (and then recede again) etc.
^^ Koby Abberton manning the controls?
Hawaii News Now feed, Hanalei live cam, 10 mins to estimated arrival
Midway reported 3ft wave
Water texture changing, maybe receding
This sucked me in for about 5 minutes then i realised that wasting my time to watch a one foot wave really isn't worth it.
Yep, & it’s getting dark quickly
- commentators are doing a good wsl style drag it out waffle-a-thon
Can't vouch for this one yet but maybe footage in Russia
…water looks to be draining out, and slowly returning… very gradual
Apparently 4ft trough-to-crest recorded at Haleiwa.
https://www.youtube.com/live/MMYuzQEGcD4?si=LPBUrVqXahH3iEEp
I gather Huntington not in zone!it could do with a push looking at size of longboard finals there today
Otherwise the challenger could be a farce
We got three Tsunami warnings in quick succession on our phones this morning over breakfast.. The coast road has been closed all day and trains stopped. I saw on insta lots of churning current a little ways up north. I went to have a look myself and because we have a really big swell atm and strong onshores it's pretty hard to tell tbh. Bit of a non-event here but all beaches are closed. Lucky it was today, yesterday was pumping and best waves we've had in ages. I would have hated being prevented surfing yesterday after such a drought of waves.
Speaking of Mt. Rainier, I climbed an active volcano a couple of weeks ago. It's trippy to see and hear the little hissing vents and smell the S02.
thanks zen for the local intel.
Good to reason to build with wood
The Gold Coast tide gauge has picked up the tsunami over the last few hours (just after midnight)... appears to be in the 20-25cm range.
Interestingly, the tide gauges around Brisbane and Sunny Coast didn't record any significant surge (though the residuals are seeing a small degree of influence).
Looks like three primary surges to me (so far), though it's settling down now.
i found something like this for San Francisco bay but no luck.. do you have link for this? also halfmoon bay harbor def show signs out here of movement 3ft
Looks like it actually headed south.
>>>>>> vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Up to four wobbles now, but easing.
Third wave of the set is always the biggest I was told as a young grommet
Except when you live on the Mid Coast and the third wave never comes ;p
Bahaha true true
Did any score the novalty waves?
Several four foot surges here on the north shore of Kauai, seems like the troughs (suck-outs) were far more powerful than the return surges.
All the river mouths sucked out hard with rapids and tons of silt getting stirred up after last weeks flooding. The reefs exposed around the same levels as a big spring low tide, lots of current lines on the outer reefs and disturbed water where the ocean had been flat and very tranquil looking an hour beforehand.
Even today around noon HST there were still regular surges happening at the local river mouth with perhaps 20cm of differential between the peak and trough and lots of current in and out.
How cool to witness. Thanks for the report.
Graphic review of the scientific measurement of the earthquake, atmospheric & ocean 'reverb' & related volcanic eruption.
Pigs and birds use to be the early warning signals before an earthquake in tribal earth cultures.
One remote tribe may have been incedentally mis-named after their quake / Tsuami warning stories to visitors.in the Indian Ocean?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinelese
https://www.probashionline.com/madhumala-chattopadhyay-first-friendly-c…
or were these Andermans just saying f*off .... with their bows and arrows
Australian response to foreigners intrusion below
Wow.
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A guy filming the incoming tsunami on Kamchatka with his mobile phone while on a walk with his dog.
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1mgg35f/a_guy_filmi…
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