Saturday, March 12, 2011

Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami Further Reports

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued Bulletin number 1 for a Tsunami Watch at 0555 UTC 11 March 2011 for Japan much of the western and mid pacific are nearby areas. This was due to an earthquake at 0546 UTC near the east coast of the Japanese island of Honshu, Japan, then assessed at magnitude 7.9. This was expanded with bulletin 2 at 0643 UTC, with the magnitude of the earthquake reassessed as 8.8. At 0730 UTC bulletin 3 upgraded this to a widespread warning with gauge reports of up to 2.79m at Hokkaido.

The Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System relayed the initial bulletin at 05:56:02 UTC. The PTWC web site is responding to web page requests with no significant delays.

The Widespread Tsunami Warning for the Pacific is still in effect, with the latest bulletin being number 16 at 0938 UTC, with reports above 1m being:

GAUGE LOCATIONLAT LONTIMEAMPLPER
NUKU HIVA MARQUESAS8.9S 140.1W1824Z1.48M / 4.8FT14MIN
PORT SAN LUIS CA35.2N 120.8W1654Z1.88M / 6.2FT22MIN
CRESCENT CITY CA41.7N 124.2W1657Z2.02M / 6.6FT20MIN
LOMBRUM MANUS IS PG2.0S 147.4E1529Z1.04M / 3.4FT62MIN
KAWAIHAE HAWAII20.0N 155.8W1413Z1.22M / 4.0FT14MIN
HILO HAWAII19.7N 155.1W1409Z1.41M / 4.6FT36MIN
KAHULUI MAUI20.9N 156.5W1327Z1.74M / 5.7FT52MIN
HANASAKI HOKKAIDO J43.3N 145.6E0656Z1.83M / 6.0FT24MIN
MIDWAY28.2N 177.4W1048Z1.27M / 4.2FT12MIN
OMAEZAKI HONSHU JP34.6N 138.2E0818Z1.42M / 4.6FT56MIN
DART 2141838.7N 148.7E0619Z1.08M / 3.5FT06MIN
Note: The amplitude measurement is relative to normal sea level. DART 21418 is a deep ocean measurement buoy 450 nautical miles north east of Tokyo.

For the latest reports see the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

For an overview of how this is reported via the Internet, see my talk notes for the East Mediterranean Tsunami Warning Centre in Istanbul.

The Sahana Free and Open Source Disaster Management System Software is available in several languages, including English and Japanese. The Sahana Foundation (which I am a member of) has issued a request for volunteers to assist with software support.

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