Earlier today Thomas Beagle on Twitter posted “Kind of weird to think about water sloshing around the planet.” This made me stop and think for a second not just how weird it is, but also how powerful it is.

The 8.8 magnitude earthquake which struck on Saturday was big enough to issue a Tsunami Warning for all these countries:

CHILE / PERU / ECUADOR / COLOMBIA / ANTARCTICA / PANAMA / COSTA RICA / NICARAGUA / PITCAIRN / HONDURAS / EL SALVADOR / GUATEMALA / FR. POLYNESIA / MEXICO / COOK ISLANDS / KIRIBATI / KERMADEC IS / NIUE / NEW ZEALAND / TONGA / AMERICAN SAMOA / SAMOA / JARVIS IS. / WALLIS-FUTUNA / TOKELAU / FIJI / AUSTRALIA / HAWAII / PALMYRA IS. / TUVALU / VANUATU / HOWLAND-BAKER / NEW CALEDONIA / JOHNSTON IS. / SOLOMON IS. / NAURU / MARSHALL IS. / MIDWAY IS. / KOSRAE / PAPUA NEW GUINEA / POHNPEI / WAKE IS. / CHUUK / RUSSIA / MARCUS IS. / INDONESIA / N. MARIANAS / GUAM / YAP / BELAU / JAPAN / PHILIPPINES / CHINESE TAIPEI

In the case of Auckland, New Zealand it is about 10,000km from the epicentre of the earthquake. Not only is it amazing that water can travel so far over such a big distance and have a massive effect* on a country so far away, it is also impressive the speed at which the wave travels. New Zealand has felt the effects of the wave 12 – 15 hours after the earthquake, to put that in comparison the flight time from Chile to New Zealand is 13 hours on an Airbus A340. The Tsunami wave is travelling at around the same speed as a jetliner. That is a very scary thought.

The Tsunami may not be a tree but the age old philosophical question of “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound?” is answered very much yes with the way in which the entire world responses to the threat of a Tsunami.

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*Massive Effect – I don’t take this to mean widespread distruction, I take this to mean Tidal Surge Chart showing a water movement of 1m+, Widespread Civil Defense warnings, Evacuations of people from low lying costal areas, cancellations of events and warnings for people to stay off beaches, pretty much anything that impacts the daily lives of many thousands of individuals.

On Wednesday night the biggest earthquake in 80 years struck New Zealand however you could be forgiven for possibly not even knowing yet given that the New Zealand media appear to be the only causalities of the quake.

The quake struck at 9:22 pm, and the epicentre was located in Dusky Sound at the south-west corner of the South Island. Its magnitude of 7.8 makes its size comparable with the Buller (or Murchison) earthquake of 1929 and the damaging Hawke’s Bay earthquake of 1931.

Now 7.8 is huge, it is the same size as the quake that struck Sichuan, China in 2008 and bigger then the earthquake that hit Kobe, Japan in 1995. At first it was assigned a size of 8.2 and it sent a small tidal wave across the Tasman that hit parts of Sydney. But you knew all that right? Because the media reported it right? No? Oh.

In fact the New Zealand media and civil defense response to this whole event has been really poor. On Wednesday night I got the majority of my news through Twitter (around 35 updates per second at times) and any major development would break on that at least 15 minutes ahead of any news website. To make matters worse after the earthquake a Tsunami warning was issued for NZ. This was not reported on the news until around 10.30pm at which point it had been canceled (however they reported it as valid).

Within minutes of the quake the news media also had reporters on the scene ready for life crosses and the like right? No. Because this wasn’t Auckland it was obvious not news. In fact the following morning the Herald was still reporting that the quake was only 6.6 and no mention of any Tsunami. Now one could partially forgive the news media for playing down the issue given that it happened in a very remote area of the country and that no one was killed or injured.

True, however this is not something to be sneezed at. We were very lucky this time, and by playing it down the news media is not helping. Because if another quake strikes sometime in the future and hits a more populated area how many people will just attempt to carry on as normal even if something is seriously wrong?

For the aussie take on the quake check this out: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25787792-421,00.html

In particular:

“The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said small tsunamis, followed by unusual current movements, were detected at Spring Bay in southern Tasmania at 10.05pm and Port Kembla, south of Sydney, at 10.06pm.”

The Geonet report, very detailed now, however this took nearly two days to become fully up to date: http://www.geonet.org.nz/news/article-jul-16-2009-fiordland-quake-biggest-for-80-years.html

At least they get how serious it was

“the remoteness of the epicentre, means that New Zealand has been very fortunate – if this earthquake had happened anywhere else it would have caused huge damage”.

And some more details on the “non-existent” tsunami

A small tsunami was generated by this earthquake, with the tide gauge at Jackson Bay, near Haast, recording a wave of 1 metre (peak to trough). An Australian gauge located out at sea, south-west of New Zealand, also detected a small wave some time after the main earthquake, which may have been generated by a landslip into the sea.

1 metre is pretty big. Not huge. But still big.

The USGS website is where I got a lot of information from on the night. It updates a lot faster than Geonet: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009jcap.php

Also Tsunami info through NOAA: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/?region=0

First it was Geonet reporting that Lake Taupo had increased activity: http://geonet.org.nz/news/article-dec-12-2008-monitoring-activity-at-taupo.html

Now it is time for Yellowstone as well to increase in activity: Earthquake swarms around Yellowstone super volcano – World – NZ Herald News

It seems that we are all doomed.

And Geonet is also reporting that 2008 was quiet: http://geonet.org.nz/news/article-jan-12-2009-volcanic-activity-in-new-zealand-2008.html

I guess it is the calm before the storm.