Why last week s extremely rare tsunami event has scientists surprised msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
University of Waikato School of Science senior lecturer and tsunami expert, Dr Willem De Lange (File Photo). As far as he can determine this is the first time in recorded history that three tsunami events have impacted in a 24-hour period, while all being generated by sources within New Zealand waters. “It’s very uncommon to have three tsunami occurring worldwide within 24 hours in different locations, but to have it being generated in one location in extremely unusual,” De Lange said. “It hasn’t happened in New Zealand and as far as I can tell in our database it hasn’t happened anywhere else in the world.”
A sequence of three major offshore
earthquakes, including a magnitude
8.1 quake near the Kermadec Islands, triggered tsunami warnings
and evacuations along the east coast of New Zealand on
the morning of March 5.
By early afternoon, the
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) lifted
the evacuation order but stressed that people should stay
off beaches and the shore.
All three earthquakes
happened along the Tonga
Kermadec subduction zone, where the Pacific tectonic
plate dives under and then sinks beneath the Australian
plate.
This subduction zone is the longest and
deepest such system on Earth. It spans from just north of
the East Cape, some 2600km to the north-east in an almost
Community Scoop » Following 3 Major Quakes Off New Zealand, Questions Remain About How They Might Be Linked scoop.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scoop.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.