Tsunami Alerts Canceled: Solomon Islands Earthquake Threatened South Pacific Islands

Tsunami warnings were issued for islands in the South Pacific following an 8.0 magnitude earthquake that struck off the Solomon Islands.

The epicenter of the quake was determined to be 211 miles (340 km) east of Kira Kira and 17.8 miles (28.7 km) deep.

The U.S. Geological Survey originally estimated the depth of the earthquake at a very shallow three miles (5 km), but later revised their calculation.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued tsunami warnings for the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, Kosrae, Fiji, Kiribati, Wallis and Futuna.

Alerts were that were issued for American Samoa, Australia, New Zealand and eastern Indonesia were canceled earlier.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reported that a tsunami measured at 3 feet (90 cm) at Lata wharf in the Solomon Islands.

The warning for the Solomon Islands urged people to seek higher ground.

"People are still standing on the hills outside of Honiara just looking over the water, trying to observe if there is a wave coming in," spokesman for the Prime Minister George Herming said. No reports of a wave were observed in Honiara, the capital city of the Solomon Islands.

There are reports that people in the region were remaining calm and heeding warnings from officials to get to higher ground.

"People around the coast and in the capital are ringing in and trying to get information from us and the National Disaster Office and are slowly moving up to higher ground," said Atenia Tahu, who works for the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation in Honiara. "But panic? No, no, no, people are not panicking."

A tsunami threat is considered to have passed after a certain amount of time goes by.

"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," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

There are no current warnings or alerts regarding a tsunami threat, according to the PTWC website.

(SOURCE)