An earthquake with a powerful 8.0 magnitude occurred in the Santa Cruz Islands this morning, causing a tsunami to form with its waves crashing into the Solomon Islands, which are close to Australia.
Last week, seven other earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 6.0-6.5 occurred in the same region.
So far five people have died and people in fishing boats are said to have been swept out to sea. Coastal villages have been damaged where at least 100 homes have been destroyed by the surging waters. Lata, the capital of the Solomon Islands, is without running water and their electricity is down. The remaining residents have since moved to higher ground – many people left before the giant wave hit the land.
I called my friends in the center of the disaster. He said that numbers of stores and residences near the earthquake epicenter have been flooded.
Professor James Goff, Director of the Tsunami and Natural Hazards Research Group said:
In reality we know very little about the long-term earthquake and tsunami activity of the entire Solomon Islands region and so cannot say with any confidence whether this type of event we have seen today is out of the ordinary or how often we might expect it to happen in the future
The tsunami warning has been lifted but significant tremors are still being felt.
[Source: News Xinhuanet]
