Undersea volcano forms new island near Tonga
An undersea volcano is erupting near Tonga, shooting smoke, steam and ash thousands of feet into the sky above the South Pacific.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre has confirmed that a tsunami has struck American Samoa following an earthquake on Upolu Island. The wave measured 1.5m – large enough to be considered dangerous - and a 0.7m wave struck Western Samoa according to spokesperson Nathan Becker. Mass casualties in the south-east villages have been reported to 3 News by Fire Commissioner Tony Hill. Emergency teams have been sent to the area.

Originally posted by RoofMonkey

Originally posted by impaired
Interesting... I Google-Earthed the exact coordinates, and it happened where there's a trench of some sort... A trench in the ocean (not the Mariana).

But it dips down to about -22,000 feet where it hit. Nothing significant, I'm sure. Just interesting...


[edit on 9/29/2009 by impaired]

Its a subduction zone. The Pacific Plate is driving under the Western one ar about 237 mm per year. (9.2 inches a year)

Further South (~350 miles) on this Arc (towards Tonga) is where that volcanic island erupted from the waters back in March.

www.telegraph.co.uk...

20 Mar 2009

Undersea volcano forms new island near Tonga
An undersea volcano is erupting near Tonga, shooting smoke, steam and ash thousands of feet into the sky above the South Pacific.

YouTube Link

[edit on 29-9-2009 by RoofMonkey]

Originally posted by mkross1983
reply to post by mkross1983

---

CNN is saying it's 5 feet that hit the island, doubt Hawaii will see anything dangerous then.

Uh: Fox news is giving different heights than CNN, I don't think anyone knows yet.

[edit on 29-9-2009 by mkross1983]

857 AM HST TUE SEP 29 2009

TO - CIVIL DEFENSE IN THE STATE OF HAWAII

SUBJECT - TSUNAMI WATCH SUPPLEMENT

A TSUNAMI WATCH CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE STATE OF HAWAII.

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS
NOTE MOMENT MAGNITUDE INCREASE TO 8.3

ORIGIN TIME - 0748 AM HST 29 SEP 2009
COORDINATES - 15.3 SOUTH 171.0 WEST
LOCATION - SAMOA ISLANDS REGION
MAGNITUDE - 8.3 MOMENT
MAGNITUDE - 8.0 RICHTER (MS)

MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY

GAUGE LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL PER
------------------- ----- ------ ----- --------------- -----
APIA UPOLU WS 13.8S 171.8W 1832Z 0.70M / 2.3FT 08MIN
PAGO PAGO AS 14.3S 170.7W 1812Z 1.57M / 5.1FT 04MIN