Tsunami warning issued for Tonga

[Ksec]

An 8. quake just hit. OMG. Heard it on MSNBC.

[Ravenseye]

1. Yikes.

How long till they know?

[Ksec]

2. I dont know

Just heard a report on MSNBC. No details given.

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. News link

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060503/ap_on_re_as/tonga_earthquake

BANGKOK, Thailand - A magnitude-8.0 earthquake struck early Thursday near the South Pacific nation of Tonga, the U.S. Geological Survey said. A tsunami warning was issued for Fiji and New Zealand.

The temblor, classified by the USGS as a "great" quake, struck 95 miles south of Neiafu, Tonga, and 1,340 miles north-northeast of Auckland, New Zealand.

The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued the tsunami warning but said it was not known whether the quake generated a potentially deadly giant wave.

[phusion]

4. more info:

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/wmsg

[Ksec]

5. Oh man

Hawaii, California..This could be really bad.

[MyNameGoesHere]

6. And about

10,000 little islands all around. yeah lets hope no tsunami.

[dipsydoodle]

7. They don't all create tsunamis

and they also don't need to be that major either. There's an undersea ridge about 50 miles of the coast of CA. If that split vertically along it's ridge and the side nearest CA fell toward it then a tsunami would hit the coast no more than a few minutes later travelling up to 10 miles so inland. It would dwarf what happened 17 months ago in Thailand.

However, it's like most things in life - not too much point in worrying about things over which you have no control.