Kuril Islands earthquake:Tsunami warning & watch canceled

A Tsunami warning and watch were issued for the entire pacific region after a quake measuring over 8 magnitude was detected off of the coast of the Russian Kuril Islands off of the coast of Japan.

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 004
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 0723Z 13 JAN 2007

THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE PACIFIC BASIN EXCEPT
ALASKA - BRITISH COLUMBIA - WASHINGTON - OREGON - CALIFORNIA.
REFER TO MESSAGES FROM THE WEST COAST AND ALASKA TSUNAMI
WARNING CENTER FOR GUIDANCE IN THESE AREAS.

... TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH CANCELLATION ...

THE TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH ARE CANCELLED FOR
 RUSSIA / JAPAN / MARCUS IS. / WAKE IS. / MIDWAY IS. /
 N. MARIANAS / GUAM / MARSHALL IS. / TAIWAN / YAP / POHNPEI /
 CHUUK / PHILIPPINES / KOSRAE / BELAU / JOHNSTON IS. /
 HAWAII / INDONESIA / KIRIBATI / NAURU / PAPUA NEW GUINEA /
 HOWLAND-BAKER / PALMYRA IS. / SOLOMON IS. / TUVALU / VIETNAM /
 JARVIS IS.

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

 ORIGIN TIME -  0423Z 13 JAN 2007
 COORDINATES -  46.7 NORTH  154.4 EAST
 LOCATION    -  EAST OF KURIL ISLANDS
 MAGNITUDE   -  8.2

MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY

 GAUGE LOCATION        LAT   LON    TIME    AMPL    PER
 -------------------  ----- ------  -----  ------  -----
 HANASAKI HOKKAIDO    43.3N 145.6E  0605Z   0.10M  28MIN
 SHEMYA  ALASKA       52.7N 174.1E  0712Z   0.30M  08MIN

 TIME - TIME OF THE MEASUREMENT
 AMPL - AMPLITUDE IN METERS FROM MIDDLE TO CREST OR MIDDLE
        TO TROUGH OR HALF OF THE CREST TO TROUGH
 PER  - PERIOD OF TIME FROM ONE WAVE CREST TO THE NEXT

EVALUATION

 SEA LEVEL READINGS INDICATE A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED. IT MAY HAVE
 BEEN DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. FOR
 THOSE AREAS - WHEN NO MAJOR WAVES ARE OBSERVED FOR TWO HOURS
 AFTER THE ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL OR DAMAGING WAVES HAVE NOT
 OCCURRED FOR AT LEAST TWO HOURS THEN LOCAL AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME
 THE THREAT IS PASSED. DANGER TO BOATS AND COASTAL STRUCTURES CAN
 CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS DUE TO RAPID CURRENTS. AS LOCAL
 CONDITIONS CAN CAUSE A WIDE VARIATION IN TSUNAMI WAVE ACTION THE
 ALL CLEAR DETERMINATION MUST BE MADE BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES.          

 NO TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS FOR OTHER COASTAL AREAS IN THE PACIFIC
 ALTHOUGH SOME OTHER AREAS MAY EXPERIENCE SMALL SEA LEVEL CHANGES.
 FOR ALL AREAS THE TSUNAMI WARNING AND TSUNAMI WATCH ARE
 CANCELLED.                                                          

THIS WILL BE THE FINAL BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.

More recent data shows that while a Tsunami wave was generated the greater northern pacific area will NOT be affected and only a small wave was reported to have hit the coasts off of Japan.

EARTHQUAKE DATA: USGS National Earthquake Information Center:

A major earthquake occurred about 525 km (325 miles) ENE of Kuril’sk, Kuril Islands or about 1710 km (1060 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan at 10:23 PM MDT, Jan 12, 2007 (Jan 13 at 2:23 PM local time in Russia).

The magnitude and location may be revised when additional data and further analysis results are available. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time; however, this earthquake may have caused damage due to its location and size.

Earthquakes of this type sometimes cause tsunamis, however the USGS has no information that an actual tsunami has been generated. For information about tsunamis, contact the NOAA Tsunami Warning Centers at http://tsunami.gov.

Tectonic Summary

The Kuril Islands earthquake of January 13, 2007, occurred as normal-faulting in the Pacific plate near the boundary between the Pacific plate and the Okhotsk plate. In the region of the earthquake’s epicenter, the Pacific plate moves northwest with respect to the Okhotsk plate with a velocity of about 90 mm/year. The Pacific plate subducts beneath the Okhotsk plate at the Kuril Trench and becomes progressively deeper to the northwest, remaining seismically active to a depth of 680 km. The January 13 earthquake occurred approximately 95 km ESE of an M8.3 earthquake that occurred on November 15, 2006. The November 15 earthquake is the largest earthquake to have occurred in the central Kuril Islands since the early 20th century. A central Kuril Islands earthquake in 1915 is estimated to have had a magnitude of about 8. The central Kuril Islands commonly experiences one or more shocks of magnitude 6 or greater in a decade. To the southwest, the southern Kuril Islands chain experienced a magnitude 8.5 earthquake in 1963. To the northeast, a magnitude 9 earthquake occurred offshore of Kamchatka in 1952.

USGS DATA:

Magnitude	8.2 (Great)
Date-Time	Saturday, January 13, 2007 at 04:23:20 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Saturday, January 13, 2007 at 2:23:20 PM = local time at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location	46.288°N, 154.448°E
Depth	10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region	EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
Distances	505 km (315 miles) SSW of Severo-Kuril’sk, Kuril Islands, Russia 525 km (325 miles) ENE of Kuril’sk, Kuril Islands 1710 km (1060 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan 7260 km (4510 miles) NE of MOSCOW, Russia
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 4.7 km (2.9 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters	Nst=224, Nph=224, Dmin=808.7 km, Rmss=0.9 sec, Gp= 29°, M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=8
Source	USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID	us2007xmae

All the data shows a massive earthquake off of the Kurile islands area that brought government agencies to issue a tsunami warning for the rest of the region as well.

Alaska and Hawaii also had been given Tsunami alert warnings and watches.

NEWS REPORTS:

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