http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11100901/

 

Quake strikes near Taiwan, sets off tsunami

Japanese agency warns of ‘possibility of a destructive local tsunami’

 

TOKYO - A powerful earthquake struck off southwestern Taiwan on Tuesday, triggering a potentially destructive tsunami that was headed toward the Philippines on the second anniversary of the waves that killed more than 200,000 in southern Asia, seismologists said.

 

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered magnitude 7.1, while Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau measured it at 6.7. It was followed eight minutes later by an aftershock registering 7.0, the USGS said.

 

Two homes in the southern city of Pingtung collapsed, trapping six people, ETTV cable news reported. The quake also triggered fires and gas leaks, the station said.

 

“There is a possibility of a destructive local tsunami,” the bureau said, saying waves were expected to hit Basco in the Philippines.

 

“However at some coasts, particularly those near the epicenter, higher tsunami may arrive,” it said. “Authorities should be aware of this possibility.”

 

No deaths were immediately reported.

 

The quakes hit on the second anniversary of a massive earthquake off Indonesia that triggered a powerful tsunami in the Indian Ocean which killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

 

 

The quake was felt throughout Taiwan, the bureau said.

Phone lines were cut in southern Taiwan from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, possibly hindering reports of damage by residents, the CTI Cable News reported. Several high-rise hotels swayed violently in Kaohsiung, it said.

 

Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said the quake was located at a depth of 13 miles. Its epicenter was west-southwest of the Hengchun Peninsula on the island’s southern tip.

 

Hengchun is about 260 miles south of Taipei.

 

 

A magnitude 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Indonesia on Dec. 26, 2004 caused a tsunami that killed at least 230,000 people in 11 countries. Those waves reached as high as 33 feet.

 

Unlike wind-driven surface waves, tsunamis are caused by seismic activity such as undersea earthquakes, landslides or volcanoes.

 

That means tsunamis are deep, reaching all the way to the seafloor, so that when they reach land they are forced upward into sometimes towering walls of water that can inundate coastal communities.

 

Please check back for more on this developing story.

The update is now saying the danger of tsunami has passed...

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11100901/

It's strange that this happened on the same date.

The quake is cauing a lot of communications problems, I know they had a lot of problems with their stock and futures markets over there. Phones and internet are down to about half of Japan and SE Asia.

There was a story on NPR yesterday talking about how coral reefs did a lot to help reduce tsunami damage, and areas where the Tsunami has hit hardest had severe reef damage.

Am I the only one that thinks a 3 foot tsunami would be really small? I know I've ridden a 2.5-3 ft wave before (as you can tell I'm not much of a surfer) and lived to tell about it.

Am I the only one that thinks a 3 foot tsunami would be really small? I know I've ridden a 2.5-3 ft wave before (as you can tell I'm not much of a surfer) and lived to tell about it.

Yes, it would be really small, it would be hard for a normal person on a beach to notice it. However, the systems in place in the Pacific are sensitive enough to detect tsunami that are quite a bit smaller than that one, because they show fundamentally different signatures than normal wave action.