No damage after small Pacific tsunami
A strong earthquake with a magnitude of up to 7.0 hit near the South Pacific nation of Samoa and triggered a small tsunami but there were no reports of damage, officials said.
The centre of the quake was between Samoa, Tonga and American Samoa and at least 250km from the nearest major populated centres.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said a tide gauge in Pago Pago, American Samoa’s harbourside capital, had measured the wave at 8 cm. Australian seismologists said Samoa was lucky the quake wasn’t bigger and that it was a long way from populated centres.
Keni Lesa, editor of the Samoa Observer newspaper, said the quake was felt across the Samoan capital, Apia, when it hit early in the evening but no unusual wave activity had been experienced.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre put the quake’s magnitude at 7.0.
Geoscience Australia seismologist David Jetson said the quake had the potential to generate “a local destructive tsunami” but that the wave measured in Pago Pago was not big enough to cause major damage.
“Eight centimetres is quite small to start with, so I’m not surprised that there hasn’t been any damage,” he said.
“It’s luck of the draw sometimes with these earthquakes,” Jetson said, adding that any significant wave would have hit populated areas within 30 minutes.
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