Earthquakes not strong enough to issue tsunami warning

By Soli Wilson 13 April 2019, 12:00AM

Samoa has experienced five earthquakes in a row over the past seven days with another two occurring early Saturday morning.

No tsunami warning was issued for the earthquakes, according to a bulletin issued by Samoa Meteorological Office. 

The earthquakes starting from April 9, occurred at a magnitude of 5.4 at 09:15 am with a depth of 10.00km in the region of Samoa.

On April 10, it occurred at 06:54 am with a magnitude of 6.7 and a depth of 103km in the region of Sandwich Islands.

On April 11, it occurred at 9:18 pm and had a magnitude of 6.20 with a depth of 10.00km in the region of Japan. On Friday, April 12 it occurred at 01:07am, Samoa again felt the tremors with a magnitude of 4.30 with a depth of 10.00km, in the region of Samoa.

Two tremors occurred on Saturday, April 13 at 01:23am recorded a magnitude of 6.3 with a depth of 10.00km, in the region of Samoa. While the second earthquake was at 03:51am, also had a magnitude of 6.3 but with a depth of 55.00km, in the region of Papua New Guinea.

According to the Principal Scientific Officer of the Geoscience section within the Samoa Meteorology Division, Fuimaono Lameko Talia, most of the country's tsunamis started from magnitudes 7.5 and above, based on historical records.

“The earthquake happened about 10km deep below the surface of the plate not below the surface of the water.

“Our recent seismic data suggested that there is an active fault nears the inter-island between Savaii and Upolu near Faleolo area.

“The fault is like a crack in the ocean floor and it is an active fault, the origin of that fault is the Tongan trench because of the movement of the Tongan trench – and that particular area is under high stress,” he added.

“But rest assured, we are constantly monitoring 24/7 and data is coming in from all our stations around Upolu and Savaii and it will take only 2-3 minutes to analyze and send out a message in case of any urgent activities.”

By Soli Wilson 13 April 2019, 12:00AM

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