Strong Earthquake and Tsunami in Samoa

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On Tuesday, the 29th of September at 17:48 GMT (06:48 local time) happened a strong earthquake to 200 km to the south-west of the islands Samoa and American Samoa. The seismological services have registered it with magnitudes of:
8.0 USGS (USA) Brings
8.1 EMSC (Europe) Brings
They can continue the replies on the page of the USGS (or by means of his file of Google Earth), on the page of the EMSC, or in Google Earthquake. The following apprehension of screen of Google Earth shows a slightly common replies distribution towards the west of the epicenter (major yellow point), one week after the principal earthquake:

The USGS tries to explain the cause of the movement (square brackets and linkage added by me):

The earthquake took place close to the north limit of a segment [a pit, similar in that north - North-East of the limit is opposite to the coasts of the Pacific Ocean] of approximately 3000 km long and orientation between the Badges of the Pacific Ocean and of Australia.
(...) According to the information about the location and the mechanism of available flaw at present it is possible to infer that the earthquake of September 29 has happened for the rupture of a normal flaw in or close to the bulkiness that suffers the Badge of the Pacific Ocean before getting in subduction in the pit [under the Badge of Australia].
Considering it in his set, the limit of the Badges of the Pacific Ocean and of Australia is one of the regions of major seismic activity in the world.

The tsunami generated from this earthquake has been a devastator in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga, reaching heights of up to 6 meters, as they can see in the following map (created by the GDACS, also in version.pdf):

In a previous entry I have told that the tsunamis are a series of waves (not only one) that is generated when an earthquake fulfills some conditions:

1. Epicenter in the sea: This earthquake happened in the sea, to 200 km to the south-west of Samoa.
2. Vertical movement of the ocean floor (fallamiento normal or inverse): This earthquake happened for a normal fallamiento, which is slightly common in the area (it will be necessary to wait for a study detailed to speak about this point with more clarity).
3. Magnitude bigger than 6.5: This earthquake had a magnitude of 8.0.
4. Minor 60 km depth: This earthquake had a 18 km depth.

Como pueden ver, se cumplieron todas las condiciones. Cabe mencionar que se han dado casos en los que, a pesar que se cumplen las condiciones, no se genera un tsunami. Pero para quienes se encuentran en el área afectada por el sismo, si éste ha sido bastante fuerte y se encuentran cerca de la costa, la recomendación es evacuar a zonas altas inmediatamente, y no esperar una alerta oficial.

The video and the map that they observe are a simulation of the wave of tsunami (created by the NCTR), with the target to estimate the time of arrival and the height of the waves on the coasts of the Pacific Ocean. Because the wave can travel at big speeds in the ocean (800 km/h in average), alerts were expressed for more remote areas, like New Zealand, Hawaii and Japan, but they were cancelled some hours later, because the waves came with minimal heights, of only some centimeters.
Reuters brings:

The official number of dead persons in Samoa was 146, but officials added that probably it would increase given the wide number of missing persons. Nearly 20 peoples were destroyed in Samoa and tens were devastated in the near American Samoa. "We have seen vans taking the dead persons (...) back the city", said the tourist neozelandés Fotu Becerra. "It impressed us when we saw the first one, but after three hours it seemed normal to us", he added.
On the south coast of the principal island of samoana, Upolu, who suffered the impact of the tsunamis, almost all the palm trees had been started like sticks by the force of the ocean. A layer of mud and sand was covering many ruined buildings, while boats and motorcars were hanging by the trees and survivors were poking between the debris.

Next, I connect to 3 galleries with images of the devastation caused by the earthquake and especially the tsunami.
He was photoasking
NZ Herald
American Network Cross
Let's hope that the population could recover soon of this catastrophe.
Of being necessary, I will be updating this entry.
More news about earthquakes in the world in Seismology.
Blogalaxia Tags: earthquake quake earthquake samoa samoa+americana tonga oceanía 29+de+setiembre 2009 8.0 8.1 magnitude intensity photos videos map tsunami tidal wave google+earth replies epicenter USGS EMSC
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