New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) said it was assessing whether the earthquake “has created a tsunami that could affect New Zealand”.
In a later update, Nema said there was no tsunami threat to New Zealand.
Ring of fire activity comes less than month after monster 8.8 quake
Today’s earthquake, which has struck near the Pacific “ring of fire” of tectonic plate boundaries, comes less than a month after a magnitude 8.8 quake on the other side of the Pacific off the Russian coast.
The 8.8 monster quake hit off the coast of Kamchatka, Russia, on July 30 and created unusual tidal activity in New Zealand and around the Pacific Ocean.
Mass evacuations were ordered in Japan, where tsunami threats were identified. Parts of Hawaii and the United States West Coast were also put under alert. Waves over a metre ended up hitting parts of Japan and Hawaii.
New Zealanders, meanwhile, were told to stay away from coastlines and waterways while the threat of strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges lingered.
Multiple emergency mobile alerts were issued – some of which Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell had to defend.
“We don’t have the luxury of playing Russian roulette with people’s lives,” Mitchell said at the time.
“I can tell you right now that if we hadn’t done that, and there’d been half a dozen people swept off the beach this morning when they were walking their dogs at 6.30 and had been drowned, then I’d be standing here being asked why we didn’t use our national alert system.
“I don’t have the luxury of complacency at all as minister, neither does Nema,” Mitchell said.
“I don’t have the luxury of operating on an optimism bias. That is how people die,” he said.
“I apologise that people have been woken up through the alert, but I make no apology for the fact that we’re taking the responsibility seriously.”
