Magnitude 8.0 earthquake strikes off the Solomon Islands

February 6, 2013 earthquake

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a magnitude-8.0 earthquake has occurred near the Solomon Islands – near New Zealand and Australia in Earth’s southern hemisphere. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has issued a warning for places in the Pacific near the epicenter, and a watch elsewhere in the Pacific. According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, it isn’t known that a tsunami has been generated. They generated the watch and warning only after evaluating the earthquake itself. They did comment in their bulletin:

AN EARTHQUAKE OF THIS SIZE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE A DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI THAT CAN STRIKE COASTLINES NEAR THE EPICENTER WITHIN MINUTES AND MORE DISTANT COASTLINES WITHIN HOURS.

Here are the details of the event from USGS.

Event Time
2013-02-06 01:12:23 UTC
2013-02-05 19:12:23 UTC-06:00 system time

Location
10.752°S 165.089°E
depth=5.8km (3.6mi)

February 6, 2013 earthquake strikes near Solomon Islands (February 5 in U.S. and Europe).

The region around the Pacific Ocean is known as the Ring of Fire. It is extremely geologically active, with most of the world’s volcanoes and earthquakes occurring there. Read more about this image, and about magnitude 8.0 earthquakes since 1900, from USGS.

Here is the bulletin from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center:

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 0118Z 06 FEB 2013

THIS BULLETIN APPLIES TO AREAS WITHIN AND BORDERING THE PACIFIC OCEAN AND ADJACENT SEAS…EXCEPT ALASKA…BRITISH COLUMBIA…WASHINGTON…OREGON AND CALIFORNIA.

… A TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH ARE IN EFFECT …

A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR

SOLOMON ISLANDS / VANUATU / NAURU / PAPUA NEW GUINEA / TUVALU /
NEW CALEDONIA / KOSRAE / FIJI / KIRIBATI / WALLIS AND FUTUNA

A TSUNAMI WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR

MARSHALL ISLANDS / HOWLAND AND BAKER / POHNPEI / TOKELAU /
SAMOA / KERMADEC ISLANDS / NEW ZEALAND / AMERICAN SAMOA /
TONGA / AUSTRALIA / NIUE / COOK ISLANDS / INDONESIA /
WAKE ISLAND / CHUUK / JARVIS ISLAND / GUAM / NORTHERN MARIANAS /
PALMYRA ISLAND / YAP / JOHNSTON ISLAND / MINAMITORISHIMA /
BELAU

FOR ALL OTHER AREAS COVERED BY THIS BULLETIN… IT IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY AT THIS TIME.

Go directly to Pacific Tsunami Warning Center

Go directly to the USGS

Bottom line: A magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck near the Solomon Islands on February 6, 2013 (February 5 in the U.S. and Europe). The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has issued a tsunami warning.

For more detail

http://earthsky.org/earth/magnitude-8-0-earthquake-strikes-off-the-solomon-islands?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%2Bearthskyblog%2B%28EarthSky%2BBlog%29