Tsunami not yet detected: expert
Although the Bureau of Metereology had issued a tsunami warning, at this stage a tsunami had not yet been detected, a University of Queensland geophysicist said this morning.
鈥淭his is the first such warning issued from the Tsunami Warning System, following a a large magnitude earthquake which the Bureau of Meterology estimates was a magnitude 8.1,鈥� Dr Dion Weatherley said.
鈥淭his is 30 times smaller than the Sumatra earthquake which generated the Boxing Day, 2004 tsunami.
鈥淎t this stage a tsunami has not yet been detected but we should know in the next hour or so from tide gauges. We should know by 10am.
鈥淎n earthquake of this size is capable of generating a tsunami of up to two metres, or not generating a tsunami at all.
鈥淭here is no cause for immediate alarm.鈥�
Dr Weatherley is a research fellow in UQ's Earth Systems Science Computational Centre (ESSCC).
Source: University of Queensland
