tsunami

A tsunami warning was sent out - lasting just over 30 minutes - but it appears to have drastically underestimated the scale of the tsunami that would follow. So what went wrong?

A 7.5 magnitude earthquake occurred just off the island of Sulawesi at 18:03 local time (10:03 GMT) on Friday, triggering dozens of aftershocks.

Indonesia's meteorological and geophysics agency BMKG issued a tsunami warning just after the initial quake, warning of potential waves of 0.5 to three metres.

But it lifted the warning just over 30 minutes later.

Waves of up to 2m (6.6ft) high swept through Palu on Sulawesi island.

Video on social media shows people screaming and fleeing in panic and a mosque amongst the buildings damaged.

Last month, a series of deadly earthquakes struck the Indonesian island of Lombok, with the biggest, on 5 August, killing more than 460.

Indonesia's disaster agency said at least 48 people have been killed from the latest quake but that the figure could rise.

The United States Geological Survey downgraded the quake from an initial measurement of magnitude 8. It struck some 47km west of Arawa on the north coast of Bougainville Island at a depth of 154km, the USGS reported.

An initial tsunami alert for several Pacific islands was wound back to cover just PNG and the neighbouring Solomon Islands and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center later said the tsunami threat had passed safely for those countries.

The Pacific tsunami warning centre said a widespread tsunami was possible for a number of Pacific nations, although not as far as New Zealand or Australia.

It said hazardous tsunami waves from the quake were possible within the next three hours along some coasts of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Vanuatu, and Indonesia as well as Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia.

The centre say any waves would be between 0.3m and 1m above tide level for the Solomons and Papua New Guinea, and less than 0.3m above normal tide levels elsewhere.

An alert from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) says widespread hazardous tsunami waves are possible for parts of the Pacific.

Areas issued tsunami warnings include Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea , Pohnpei , Vanuatu , Chuuk, Indonesia, Nauru and Kosrae.

Initial reports suggest the earthquake struck at a depth of 154km.

The quake was initially recorded at 8.0M.

More to come.

- NZ Herald

The earthquake has claimed at least 10 lives in Chile.

The French High Commission had warned the people on the Marquesas Islands to prepare for waves of up to 1.4 metres last night.

The Geophysical Laboratory in Tahiti says waves of slightly higher than one metre can be expected in the Marquesas and no higher than 30 centimetres in the most populated parts of the territory.

The French High Commissioner called for people in the Marquesas not to stay on the coast last night and to check moorings.

Tsunami warnings were in place for much of the Pacific following yesterday's massive 8.3 earthquake in Chile.

The earthquake has claimed at least 11 lives in Chile.

The Pacific Tsunami warning Centre has now advised that there is no further tsunami threat for American Samoa as a result of the massive earthquake in Chile.

However residents have been advised to be observant and exercise normal caution if you are in or near the ocean.

The tremor at 2254 UTC was recorded at a depth of 10 kilometres.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii says waves of between one and three metres could hit French Polynesia.

Waves of up to a metre are forecast for New Caledonia, New Zealand, Fiji, the Samoas, the Cook Islands, Tokelau, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tonga, Solomon Islands, and the scattered islands over the north Pacific.

Smaller waves may hit Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

The 8.3-magnitude tremor was centred off the coast, about 144 miles (232km) north-west of the capital.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned that "widespread hazardous tsunami waves are possible".

One person was killed by a falling wall, and evacuation was ordered in coastal areas. Tsunami sirens were heard in the port of Valparaiso.

The earthquake struck just off the coast at 19:54 local times (22:54 GMT), about 55km west of the city of Illapel, the US Geological Survey said.

Officials said it was at the depth of about 10km.