New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is warning coastal areas  are expected to experience strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges following a magnitude 7.7 earthquake in the Pacific.

A tsunami threat was issued for Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia after the 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck southeast of the Loyalty Islands.

The warnings were issued just after 3pm by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre. The earthquake was nearly 38 km deep.

In its warning, NEMA said: “Strong currents and surges can injure and drown people. There is a danger to swimmers, surfers, people fishing, and anyone in or near the water close to shore.

“People … should move out of the water, off beaches and shore areas and away from harbours, marinas, rivers and estuaries.”

The first tsunami activity causing these strong currents and surges may reach New Zealand in the areas North Cape at approximately 5pm, NEMA said.

“This may be later and the first tsunami activity may not be the most significant. Strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges will continue for several hours and the threat must be regarded as real until this advisory is cancelled.”

Coastal inundation was not expected, NEMA said.

The areas under threat:

• The West Coast of the North Island from Cape Reinga to Whanganui including the West Coast of Auckland, Manukau Harbour and New Plymouth
• The East Coast of the North Island from Cape Reinga to Tolaga Bay including Whangārei, Great Barrier Island, the East Coast of Auckland, Waiheke Island, Waitematā Harbour, Tauranga, Whakatane and Opotiki
• The West Coast of the South Island from Farewell spit to Milford Sound including Westport, Greymouth and Hokitika

Advice for people in areas under threat:

• Stay off beaches and shore areas
• People on boats, liveboards and at marinas should leave their boats/vessels and move onto shore. Do not return to boats unless instructed by officials
• Move out of the water, off beaches and shore areas and away from harbours, marinas, rivers and estuaries
• Do not go to the coast to watch the unusual wave activity as there may be dangerous and unpredictable surges
• There is no need to evacuate other areas unless directly advised by local civil defence authorities
• Listen to local civil defence authorities and follow any instructions and share this information with family, neighbours and friends

RNZ Pacific senior reporter Walter Zweifel said the warning broadcast for New Caledonia on RRB, a commercial radio station, applied to all islands, with people being asked to evacuate coastal areas for higher ground.

Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-Hazards Department issued the following statement: “An earthquake of this size has the potential to cause destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicenter within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours.

“The National Disaster Management Office advises people over all Vanuatu group to take appropriate action and precautionary measures upon receiving this advisory. This includes immediate evacuation from coastal areas to higher grounds.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Fiji’s Department of Mineral Resources needs time to liaise with a number of agencies before emergency warnings or alerts are issued, says acting Prime Minister and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

He made the comment after being quizzed on the delay in issuing a tsunami warning in Fiji following the underwater volcanic eruption in Tonga on Saturday.

The National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) issued a public advisory after 7pm on Saturday — two hours after the volcano erupted.

While many found out about the volcanic activity on social media, just as many thought the explosions were thunder.

Many living in coastal communities were also unaware the volcano was erupting — until tidal surges flooded their communities.

Sayed-Khaiyum said the Mineral Resources Department was in close contact with seismology experts in New Zealand.

He said the department was also in contact with various other international agencies for assessments, adding that it required very “sophisticated equipment to predict these things as to when it would occur”.

“It is not our ability to say that this will happen in the next hour and that is something the experts will tell us, so this is why it is critically important to keep the radio on as all messages as and when needed will be given on the radio,” he said.

Luke Nacei is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

RNZ News

Large waves in the Far North have forced 120 people to be evacuated as big swells from Cyclone Cody and the surge from yesterday’s volcanic eruption and tsunami in Tonga begin to hit Aotearoa New Zealand.

A tsunami hit the kingdom after undersea volcano Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai erupted for eight minutes, throwing clouds of ash into the sky, yesterday afternoon.

Waves flooded the capital Nuku’alofa, where video footage has shown water engulfing buildings.

The eruptions have been heard as booms or “thumps” across the Pacific, in Fiji, Niue, Vanuatu, and in New Zealand.

RNZ listeners from Northland, to Wānaka in Central Otago have reported hearing what sounded like gunshots, loud bangs, or sonic booms.

The National Emergency Management Agency issued an update this morning after yesterday’s tsunami warning that the advisory remains in place for the north and east coast of the North Island and the Chatham Islands, and has been extended to the west coast of the South Island.

Meanwhile, Cyclone Cody is expected to bring gale force winds and large swells to the eastern coast of Aotearoa’s North Island over the next few days.

Tidal surges in Far North
Police said they received a number of reports regarding tidal surges from people based in the Far North between 11pm and 12am, including Te Rere Bay and Shipwreck Bay.

Police, Fire and Coastguard also assisted with evacuations of boats moored at Tūtūkākā Marina last night.

A number of boats and moorings were damaged by large waves washing ashore.

Northland Civil Defence’s Murray Soljak said damage caused to boats in Tūtūkākā Marina last night were due to a single wave, however, surges along the coast were continuing at regular intervals.

A camp site at Mahinepua Bay was also inundated, about 50 people were in the camp at the time and all were accounted for.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A new tsunami warning is now in force for all of Tonga following this evening’s violent eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai undersea volcano with tidal waves flooding the shoreline of the capital Nuku’alofa.

Parts of New Zealand and Samoa are also under tsunami warning, reports RNZ News.

The eruption came shortly after locals in Tongatapu reported a “deafening” sound of an eruption this afternoon. They also reported stones pouring down on the main island of Tongatapu.

No injuries or deaths have been reported.

Stay safe everyone ?? pic.twitter.com/OhrrxJmXAW

— Dr Faka’iloatonga Taumoefolau (@sakakimoana) January 15, 2022

Kaniva News correspondent in Tonga Patimiosi Ngūngūtau shared a photo of sea waves flowing inland.

He described the deafening sound as “weird”.

‘Rain of small black stones’
“It was a rain of small black stones and black ash,” he said.

He said they had evacuated to Liahona in the central south.

Ngūngūtau said ash not only covered vehicle screens but their impact sounded like they could break the screens.

Tonga Geological Services said at 1.45pm this afternoon satellite images captured this morning between showed volcanic eruption continuing, with ash emitted and detected at 7.20am this morning.

Tonga issues tsunami warning after undersea volcano erupts https://t.co/t2rjMNZb9Z

— ABC News (@abcnews) January 15, 2022

“This ash plume was due to an eruption that lasted 10 to 15 minutes and was drifting downwind to the east from Hunga. No further eruption has been detected since then,” it said.

“Near shore water turbulence caused by the eruption is expected to have ceased for all shores of Ha’apai and Tongatapu islands. It is advised that the public observe currents before entering the water.

“Owners of rainwater harvesting systems in all Tonga are advised to check for ashfall on your roofs for ash before reconnecting your guttering systems.

“Please clean if ashfall is evident. For locations of residents where the pungent smell of sulphur or ammonia is experienced please use breathing masks if helpful”.

BREAKING: The Pacific Island nation of Tonga is tonight the scene of a disaster after a tsunami struck. An underwater volcano erupted, plumes of smoke blacking out the sky and sending powerful waves through villages. https://t.co/wx2NZaxEPi @AlexLewisJourno #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/7Nng0zmT3d

— 7NEWS Australia (@7NewsAustralia) January 15, 2022

Flooded coastal roads
RNZ News reports tidal waves crossed the shoreline in Nuku’alofa and flooded coastal roads and properties.

There is panic and people are worried and uncertain what to do, RNZ Pacific reporters said.

The advisory for New Zealand’s north and east coast of the North Island and the Chatham Islands came around 8.45pm from NEMA (National Emergency Management Agency).

It said people in those areas might experience strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore.

People are being urged to stay away from beaches and shore areas until 4am tomorrow.

There was no need to evacuate other areas unless directly advised by local civil defence authorities.

Coastal inundation (flooding of land areas near the shore) is not expected as a result of this event.

King evacuated from palace
Kaniva News reports that Tonga’s King Tupou VI has been evacuated from the Royal Palace after the tsunami flooding.

“A convoy of police and troops rushed the king to the villa at Mataki’eua as residents headed for higher ground”, reports Fiji-based Islands Business magazine.

“Earlier, a series if explosions were heard as an undersea volcano erupted throwing clouds of ash into the sky.”

TVNZ 1News reports that the second eruption in as many days had sent ash, steam and gas 20 km into the air.

A journalist based in Nukuʻalofa told the channel the situation was “precarious”.

“You’ll forgive the wobble in my voice because we’ve had a very frightening hour,” she said.

Asia Pacific Report collaborates with Kaniva Tonga.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The tsunami marine warning issued for all of Tonga waters following the violent eruptions of underwater volcano Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai has been lifted.

Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai erupted on Friday sending ash, steam and gas 20 kilometres into the air.

The volcano had been active from 20 December 2021 but was declared dormant on  January 11.

The head of Tonga Geological Services, Taaniela Kula, told RNZ Pacific that at 4am on Friday, January 15, an eruption was picked up on satellite.

Kula said the eruption on Friday was almost seven times bigger than the one on December 20, bigger in terms of the radius of the plume that was scattered from the volcano, up to 250km away from the volcano radius.

He said his team visited the site on Friday to see up close, 2-3km away from the volcano, and the eruption of ash really shot up to over 1km into the atmosphere.

“That created an ash column of about 5km diameter just elevating ash up to 20kms into the atmosphere, that was really high, and the plume covered that 5km diameter of that island.”

Kula said it appeared to have been sourced from two locations but “we couldn’t identify on Friday because of too much plume and the source was not clear but his team could see multiple shooting … and ash”.

He said it was the biggest eruption he has seen on the site.

Overnight, Kula said they noted that the lack of ash emerging into the atmosphere and the satellite picked up ash was drifting to the east and dispersed after, around 2am. It had gone past ‘Otu Mu’omu’a islands of Ha’apai to the East side.

“This morning, steam and gas plume coming out of the volcano, drifting Eastwards, and so they have lowered the aviation colour code from ‘Red’ to ‘Orange’ this morning because of no sign of ash.”

Government to supply clean drinking water to Fonoi and Mango Islandshttps://t.co/4CQx490ELG pic.twitter.com/TCkLipbZKO

— Tonga Portal (@tongaportal) January 14, 2022

Kula said a lot of ash was noticed in the Ha’apai group and this morning a navy boat is shipping out drinking water to locals.

The Tonga Geological Services said people were told to disconnect their water supplies on Friday and to ensure that there was no ashfall on their rainwater harvesting system, especially their roof and also their gutter system before they reconnect it.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

On Friday at 6am I woke up in Covid Level 3 Auckland to news of a big earthquake around 100km east of East Cape, at about 2:30am. While many people in Auckland had apparently felt it, many more had uninterrupted sleep. Descriptions on Radio New Zealand’s Morning Reportsuggested that this was an earthquake similar to one that I had felt from the Kapiti Coast in 1968; the Inangahua (Buller Gorge) Earthquake. Certainly, it was a quake that suggested danger, but at a sufficient distance for coastal dwellers to evacuate from without panic. Certainly, an earthquake itself is the best message of a possible tsunami. (Though many of the worst tsunamis in natural history did not arise from earthquakes.)

By 7:30am I was eating breakfast in front of The AM Show – as I do – when breaking news came through of an entirely new earthquake, near the Kermadec Islands (of which Raoul Island is the largest). I knew these islands to be 1,000 km to the northeast of the North Island. But I suspect not too many other people knew that, and media coverage of the new event was both slow and confused. Over an hour later, while doing the laundry, I heard about the magnitude 8+ earthquake, also near Raoul Island.

By now I was quite alarmed. The 11 March 2011 earthquakes off northeast Japan were initially reported as magnitude 7 followed by magnitude 8. (The big one off Japan was later upgraded to magnitude 9.) And I think we all remember the carnage created in Japan – ten years ago this week. New Zealand is not immune from such an event, nor is Australia.

The events were enough for the television and radio media to abandon their schedules, giving wall to wall coverage of the tsunami threat, but only focussing on the areas covered by the New Zealand Civil Defence alert. The alert barely changed as a result of the huge Kermadec quakes; quakes which probably nobody on the planet actually felt. The area for evacuation remained basically the same (Matata in the Bay of Plenty, to Tolaga Bay on the East Coast), though a fraction of the Northland east coast was added (with Aupouri Peninsular somewhat later again). And Great Barrier Island. The alerts continued to emphasise the importance of feeling earthquakes as primary civil defence alerts, and continued to give the impression that these three earthquakes were part of a cluster off East Cape. (Indeed, see this report Tsunami warning for Australia following New Zealand earthquake from Nine News in Australia, which shows only the east of East Cape location on its main graphic.)

Still worried this could be a serious event, I looked for information about what people on the Bay of Plenty coast between Great Barrier and Matata should do (and people north of Great Barrier but south of Whangarei). Anybody with Google Maps on their phone should have been locating the Kermadec Islands, and seeing their orientation towards New Zealand. There was no guidance to these people, and all the reporters seems to be at the places that were on the evacuation list. The undermentioned eastern Coromandel and western Bay of Plenty districts look distinctly vulnerable from the Kermadecs. This includes Tauranga, a city of 150,000 people.

Were people in Tauranga evacuating? Don’t know, the New Zealand media phone was off the hook. I saw a man in Tauranga reporting for Al Jazeera, but he was really only relaying news from the New Zealand media; news more focussed on Whatatane and Whangarei. There was no sense that Tauranga itself might be in danger. I did hear – however – that many people in Mangawhai did evacuate, despite their town not being in the notified evacuation zone. And, I hope that the people of Pukehina Beach also evacuated, despite being west of Matata. It would have a long walk to higher ground for those without cars; though Aucklanders with baches there were supposed to be in Auckland.

I looked up the Pacific Warning Centre (based in Hawaii). While there were warnings throughout the south and west Pacific – including South America – the only warnings I saw predicting a wave over one metre high were for New Caledonia and Vanuatu. (The second time I looked, at about 11:30am, New Caledonia had been downgraded.)

Today I did a couple of Google searches to see what the chatter was in Brisbane; after all, a tsunami hitting New Caledonia from Raoul would be expected to continue on to the long Queensland Coast (though a category 5 hurricane – tropical cyclone Niran – was in the way). I found a story – Tsunami Warning Sends People to High Ground in French Polynesia – about people heading for the hills in French Polynesia. And I saw this – The Informer: A tsunami warning, a review and an apology – just another Friday in 2021 – claiming all three earthquakes were at the Kermadec Islands (“our neighbours”), and while there was no threat to Australia a 64cm wave was recorded on Norfolk Island. Looking at the map, Norfolk Island is in the middle of a straight line from Raoul Island to Brisbane (at 23 degrees latitude).

Overall, the Australian coverage seems to have been complacent to the extreme.

For those not on the hills, most of the rest of us – whether at Covid19 emergency level Two, or Three – settled excitedly, to watch the notified government press conference from the Beehive bunker. We love to hear the stage-managed ‘word’ from the top. Then, just as Kiri Allan was starting to speak, Aucklanders got the mobile phone alert. On my phone I press OK to make the noise go away, and the messages disappear as well. Possibly not ideal!? On my partner’s phone, the message remained, so I read it there.

These NZ Herald articles give the general tone: Earthquakes trigger tsunami warning: Government update on threat to coastal New Zealand, and ‘I just want to give her a big hug’: How New Zealand’s tsunami scare unfolded.

Three points to note about the Auckland message. First, it looked like a message mainly for the west coast beaches, such as Piha. That’s the only bit I saw before unintentionally erasing the message. Then, while the message itself only indicated action from those on the beaches or in boats, it gave little guidance about what people not on the beaches or boats should do. Twenty minutes after the alert, relatives living on low ground but not living at a coastal address, turned up – to my surprise – at our front door. It was nice to see them, and certainly the tsunami alert provided socialising opportunities for otherwise locked-down Aucklanders. Apparently, some the roads in suburban Auckland at 11:45am were much busier than normal for a city in pandemic lockdown, despite no evacuation notice given. The third point was that the message ended with a request to ‘pass this message on’. But, even on my partner’s phone, the message could neither be forwarded nor copied and pasted into an email.

I would hate to think of how wrong things would have gone in Auckland and Tauranga had an event on the scale of Samoa in 2009, let alone the scale of Japan in 2011, eventuated. (Further, it was high tide.) If Aucklanders and Taurangans were to face a major tsunami without fatalities, the evacuation should have begun within half an hour of the magnitude 8+ earthquake (ie around 9am, in this instance). (The people on eastern Australia would have had more time – Brisbane is the same distance from the Kermadecs as is French Polynesia.) I do not mention Australia in jest; after all, in 2004 nearly 300 people in Somalia died as a result of the Indonesian tsunami that Boxing Day. Distance is not necessarily a measure of risk. The Kermadec seismic zone is potentially capable of generating similar size waves. Indeed Southeast Queensland faces one-in-five chance of a tsunami in the next 50 years, according to an article published in the Brisbane Courier on 16 November 2017.

Re Auckland, I heard mayor Phil Goff saying that Great Barrier Island (Aotea) is not called ‘Great Barrier’ for nothing, implying that Aotea shelters Auckland from tsunamis. However, this Newshub (21 November 2016) story Mega-tsunami: Would Auckland survive? suggests caution. “One of the great urban myths in Auckland is that the two main islands adjacent to the city would protect most sea-side suburbs and the CBD from significant tsunami damage. Dr Nandasena [tsunami expert] believes Waiheke and Rangitoto could actually amplify tsunami waves coming into Waitemata Harbour.” Presumably this is true of Aotea as well as Waiheke and Rangitoto.

Some context about why the general tone of scientific messages was somewhat unconcerned, came through only towards the end of Friday. In Earthquake swarm: NZ just tasted a ‘regional source’ tsunami: What are they? (NZ Herald, 5 March), Dr Jose Borrero, of Raglan-based marine consultancy eCoast Ltd said “Anything that happens along the Kermadec Trench affects us less and less the further north it is – and this morning’s earthquake was about 1000km north of us. … Energy from the tsunami goes out perpendicularly to the fault line. The fault line runs north to south, so the energy goes east to west – and we’re to the south.” I wish we had had a good explanation much earlier as to why the people of Tauranga and Auckland were in no danger.

So, re the Kermadecs, humanity may be uniquely lucky. Firstly, the quakes there are usually just not quite big enough to unleash really dangerous waves. Second, the directions that are perpendicular to the huge faultline lead either to ’empty’ parts of the Pacific Ocean (to the east-southeast), or towards New Caledonia (which is aligned to minimise damage from the Kermadecs) and from there towards the Great Barrier Reef (west-northwest) of Raoul Island where the geography probably favours a dissipation of large waves before they reach the north Queensland coast or the island of New Guinea.

New Zealand’s tsunami risk remains mostly from local events on the East Coast of the North Island, south of East Cape. Less likely but potentially lethal events that could hit Auckland or Tauranga would be major undersea volcanic eruptions in the Hauraki Gulf or Pacific Ocean, or an underwater landslide from Hawaii. Indeed, there is evidence of an ancient 100 metre tsunami on the cliffs near Wollongong, Australia. That tsunami probably hit Auckland and Tauranga too.

————

Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland.

contact: keith at rankin.nz

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it is hard not to feel like New Zealand is having a run of bad luck, with residents waking up today to a tsunami alert amid the covid-19 restrictions.

The tsunami alert was triggered after three quakes overnight – the first of 7.3 magnitude struck about 2.30am just off the east coast of the North Island.

The second was 7.4 magnitude near Kermadec Islands at 6.41am, and the third was a magnitude 8.1 quake near Kermadec Islands at 8.28am.

At 3.45pm, the National Emergency Management Agency cancelled all of the tsunami warnings.

Emergency Management Minister Kiritapu Allan said there are no reports of damage at this stage to property, but the focus had been on evacuation and further assessment would follow.

The prime minister said HMNZS Canterbury was due to be at the Kermadec Islands to carry GNS scientists, Sir Peter Blake Trust scholarship holders, and a group of iwi but the covid-19 alert level changes on Sunday had prevented that deployment from happening.

“Otherwise we would have had people on the island at the time and I can’t imagine what that experience would’ve been like,” she said.

Possible ‘dangerous situation’
Ardern said what would have been “a very distressing if not dangerous situation” had been prevented in this instance.

She said when she had felt the earthquake she had checked in with the minister at 2.29am.

Asked about what she thought given the country was dealing with a pandemic and an earthquake, she said: “Bugger it, pretty much what everyone else thought at that time.

“But this is as the minister has said, we are the shaky isles and what we’ve got to do is make sure no matter what experience we have we do everything we can to prepare so that in the future if we have another experience that we are even better prepared than we were.

“As I walked into the Beehive bunker, where we undertake our Civil Defence emergency co-ordination, two things struck me. First that it’s hard not to feel like our country is having a run of bad luck when you have an earthquake, tsunami alert and pandemic to contend with all in one day.”

But she said walking past images of past natural disasters plastered on the walls to the bunker, she realised the efforts of Civil Defence teams.

“We have had our share of tough moments in this country, but within that we have always been blessed incredible people who work in our emergency system.”

Allan said there had been multiple aftershocks after the initial quakes.

Auckland to move to level 2
Meanwhile, Auckland will move to alert level 2 and the rest of New Zealand will move to level 1 at 6am on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced, reports RNZ News.

Ardern announced the move while speaking to media after a cabinet meeting to decide on alert level changes.

This will be reconsidered with a plan to move Auckland down a level at the start of the next weekend if possible, she said.

“If you are sick, stay at home, don’t go to work or school and don’t socialise. Keep track of where you’ve been at all times.”

The restriction of 100 people at events will be in place.

No new cases of covid-19 have been reported in the community for the fifth day in a row or in managed isolation today.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

An 8.0 earthquake has struck near the Kermadec Islands, hours after a 7.4 quake near the Kermadecs and a 7.1 off the North Island coast,

A 7.4 quake struck near the Kermadec Islands earlier this morning. The islands are 800km to 1000km from New Zealand.

National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said people on the East Coast of the North Island should head to higher ground immediately because of a tsunami threat from the 8.0 quake.

In its third earthquake warning, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said people in the East Coast of the North Island from the Bay of Islands to Whangārei, from Matata to Tolaga Bay including Whakatāne and Opotiki and Great Barrier Island must move immediately to higher ground.

It said people in the areas indicated on the mane should not wait, but should evacuate these areas even if they didn’t feel the earthquake.

“A damaging tsunami is possible,” it said.

The Kermadec Islands are more than 800km from New Zealand, and is an area where there is a lot of earthquake activity.

The last major quake in the region was in June, also a 7.4 magnitude tremor, which prompted warnings of strong currents around New Zealand’s coast but no damage was reported.

GNS Science seismologist John Ristau said today’s quake was along the boundary of the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates.

It was the second severe quake in New Zealand waters this morning, after a strong 7.1 magnitude quake struck off the north Island coast.

More than 52,000 people reported on GeoNet that they felt the quake. It struck at 2.27am, 105km east of Te Araroa at a depth of 90km.

Hundreds of people moved to higher ground but there have been no immediate reports of damage. A tsunami warning for that quake was cancelled around 6am.

TSUNAMI WARNING: Areas that need to evacuate are indicated on this map. Evacuate these areas even if you did not feel the earthquake. DO NOT WAIT. A damaging tsunami is possible. More info at https://t.co/ccVFYQQoBr pic.twitter.com/bnEgZy8ikF

— National Emergency Management Agency (@NZcivildefence) March 4, 2021

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake has struck south-east of New Caledonia’s Loyalty Islands and a tsunnami warning is in place for several countries.

Geoscience Australia said the quake, which struck early this morning, had an epicentre 400 km east of the town of Tadine.

Seismic data indicates the undersea earthquake struck at a depth of 54 km.

Several aftershocks of up to magnitude 6.1 on the Richter scale have occurred.

The US Tsunami Warning System said hazardous tsunami waves up to a level of 1m above the normal tide level are possible for coasts within 1000 km of the epicentre with New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji particularly at risk.

Officials in American Samoa have cancelled a tsunami watch for the territory.

RNZ’s correspondent in Pagopago said officials reported no significant wave had been generated by the earthquake.

New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency is warning that coastal areas  could experience strong and unusual currents, and unpredictable surges at the shore.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said there is a tsunami threat to offshore Australian islands and territories.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Tourists have been fleeing the Indonesian island of Lombok since yesterday after a magnitude-6.9 earthquake killed at least 98 people – a death toll expected to rise, reports Al Jazeera.

More than 200 people were seriously injured in Sunday’s shallow quake as rescue workers scrambled to reach survivors in remote areas.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the damage was “massive” in northern Lombok. In several districts, more than half of homes were destroyed or severely damaged.

READ MORE: What you need to know about the Lombok earthquake

Al Jazeera reports Nugroho saying the death toll will “definitely increase”, adding more than 20,000 people had been displaced.

Thousands of buildings collapsed, especially in the north, near the earthquake’s epicentre, and power and communications were down in some areas on the popular tourist island.

A tsunami alert was issued immediately after the quake struck, sending panicked people running to higher ground, but it was later rescinded, Al Jazeera reports.

“When it happened, we stood with residents in the middle of the street and watched houses collapse around us,” said Yustrianda Sirio, who was visiting the island.

‘Screamed hysterically’
“Many of us screamed hysterically.”

Some airlines have added extra flights to help tourists leave the island, while about 1200 foreign and domestic tourists were evacuated by boat from three Gili islands off Lombok’s northwest coast, said Nugroho.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Tanjung in northern Lombok (see video), said: “The destruction here is unbelievable.

“After there was a tsunami alert yesterday, a lot of [tourists] panicked; they climbed into trees, they ran into the hills, a lot of people got injured there,” she said.

“There’s no arrangement, there’s no transport, there’s no food, there’s no water for them, so a lot of them are completely lost, they’re completely confused, still scared and the only thing they’re telling me is that they want to leave the country as soon as possible.”

The Indonesian military said it was sending a vessel with medical aid and supplies and would provide logistical support.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Dr Alexandra Wake in Melbourne

As a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Kirakira in the Solomon Islands early today, triggering a tsunami warning across the Pacific, many residents of the country would have turned to shortwave radio for more information.

The tsunami warning has since been called off, though assessments of damage from the quake are not yet complete.

Sadly, this vital communication service is under threat in this already under-resourced region.

For almost 80 years, Australia has provided such shortwave services, including vital emergency service information, to Asia and the Pacific.

But government funding cuts saw Asian services turned off in January 2015. And now the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has decided to cut the remaining services to residents of remote parts of the Pacific, Papua New Guinea and parts of northern Australia by ceasing its shortwave radio services to the Pacific from the end of January 2017.

The ABC has argued the shortwave transmissions, which can travel thousands of kilometres and be picked up by low-cost transmitters run on batteries or solar power, are outdated. Michael Mason, ABC’s Director of Radio said:

While shortwave technology has served audiences well for many decades, it is now nearly a century old and serves a very limited audience. The ABC is seeking efficiencies and will instead service this audience through modern technology.

The problem is, of course, that in remote places in the Pacific, particularly in Melanesian nations such as Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, there is no access to an FM signal, limited internet and, where internet is available, it is expensive.

Advances in technology such as low-earth orbit satellites, which provide high speed global internet services, show promise. But, as yet, the receiving technology is expensive and the receivers aren’t available in rural and remote area.

How shortwave evades censors
The ABC has said it will replace international shortwave services with digital services including a web stream, in-country FM transmitters, an Australia Plus expats app and partner websites and apps such as TuneIn radio and vTurner.

There was no mention of the use of updates to shortwave technologies, such as Digital Radio Mondiale, which is being used by Radio New Zealand, or using shortwave for digital data transmission, which cannot be censored or jammed.

The move away from shortwave to FM transmissions and digital and mobile services has been accelerated despite the fact that FM frequencies can easily be shut down by disaffected political leaders, as happened in Fiji in 2009 on the order of then self-appointed – but since elected in 2014 – Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.

It was a matter of national pride at the time for the ABC to be providing independent information for Fijians via shortwave, with then managing director of the corporation, Mark Scott, highlighting a text message sent from inside Fiji to the ABC, which read: “We are trying to listen to you online but are having difficulty. Please keep broadcasting. You are all we have”.

Shortwave radio has played a valuable role in getting information to communities in the middle of civil disturbance, such as in East Timor in the lead up to independence.

In Burma, it was internal leaders who sought the shortwave services. In 2009, Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi called on Australia to provide shortwave broadcasts. At the time the ABC’s director of international, Murray Green, said the move reflected the ABC’s ongoing commitment to serving people in those parts of Asia and the Pacific who live without press freedom. Even before this announcement was made, the price of shortwave radios was increased in Burma’s Sittwe market.

Keeping people safe from disaster
It isn’t just a matter of providing information to censored countries. Shortwave also provides a reliable source of information, particularly during natural disasters.

Shortwave provides vital warnings of tsunamis to outlying island nations. It was a lasting communication method after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, and was vital in the response to 2015’s Cyclone Pam, which devastated Vanuatu.

Shortwave transmissions go over mountains and seas, have a longer range, and don’t fall over and twist in storms like FM radio towers.

Shortwave is seen as a vital part of keeping communities safe. As an ABC correspondent wrote on their Facebook page, and as technology reporter Peter Marks mentioned on air, after Cyclone Pam:

We expected the worst. Death, injury, hunger. But when we arrived, the Dillons Bay village chief … told me they knew the cyclone was approaching, so they sheltered in the two solid buildings in the village. Most houses were flattened but not a single injury. I asked him how he knew the cyclone was approaching. He said, ‘ABC Radio’.

New Zealand and the UK take on China
The cuts to the shortwave services at the ABC are just the latest in a long line of budget savings to its international services.

While other cuts to the broadcaster garnered many headlines, the ABC has cut the shortwave, and also quietly closed its Vietnamese, Khmer and Burmese language services on 2 December  2016. The French-language service to the French Pacific is due to end in February 2017.

Thankfully for Pacific nations, while Australia is dialling back its shortwave services, New Zealand’s RNZ International is maintaining Pacific-wide shortwave transmission. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has also announced a major boost to its international broadcasts, including producing shortwave radio programmes for North Korea. The BBC is fearful of the rise of state-backed broadcasters such as China’s CCTV, Qatar’s Al Jazeera, and Russia’s RT.

The Pacific appears to be a specific concern for China, with Australia’s Lowy Institute tracking the extent of China’s aid programme in the Pacific at more than 200 projects worth $US1.4 billion since 2006 and the state-owned Xinhua News Agency actively covering the Asia Pacific.

In light of this, the BBC clearly recognises a need to boost its international broadcasting, using shortwave to beat censors in autocratic regimes.

It is a great shame for the Pacific that Australia no longer agrees.

Dr Alexandra Wake, a senior lecturer in journalism at RMIT, is an academic who maintains a career as a freelance journalist. Her last assignment for ABC Radio Australia was more than two years ago. This article was first published by The Conversation today and is republished under a Creative Commons licence.

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