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 LOCATION	LAT LON	TIME	AMPL	PER
NUKU HIVA MARQUESAS	8.9S 140.1W	1824Z	1.48M / 4.8FT	14MIN
PORT SAN LUIS CA	35.2N 120.8W	1654Z	1.88M / 6.2FT	22MIN
CRESCENT CITY CA	41.7N 124.2W	1657Z	2.02M / 6.6FT	20MIN
LOMBRUM MANUS IS PG	2.0S 147.4E	1529Z	1.04M / 3.4FT	62MIN
KAWAIHAE HAWAII	20.0N 155.8W	1413Z	1.22M / 4.0FT	14MIN
HILO HAWAII	19.7N 155.1W	1409Z	1.41M / 4.6FT	36MIN
KAHULUI MAUI	20.9N 156.5W	1327Z	1.74M / 5.7FT	52MIN
HANASAKI HOKKAIDO J	43.3N 145.6E	0656Z	1.83M / 6.0FT	24MIN
MIDWAY	28.2N 177.4W	1048Z	1.27M / 4.2FT	12MIN
OMAEZAKI HONSHU JP	34.6N 138.2E	0818Z	1.42M / 4.6FT	56MIN
DART 21418	38.7N 148.7E	0619Z	1.08M / 3.5FT	06MIN

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.