Australia issues tsunami warning after NZ quake

NEW ZEALAND and Australia temporarily issued tsunami warnings yesterday after an earthquake struck the south of New Zealand, causing minor damage but no injuries.

Australia’s weather bureau said a small tsunami had been recorded in New Zealand and another was detected in the Tasman Sea heading toward Australia’s south-east coast.

“Our deep ocean buoy in the southern Tasman Sea indicates a wave travelling across the Tasman. Because of the depth of the water we cannot tell the wave height,” Chris Ryan, of Australia’s Tsunami Warning Centre, said.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology issued a statement advising people in low-lying coastal areas to move to higher ground and for people to get out of the water.

Australia cancelled its warning after an hour, downgrading the threat to a “small boat alert”.

New Zealand also issued a tsunami warning but later cancelled it. The warnings were sparked by a shallow quake in New Zealand’s remote south.

The Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences said the tremor, measuring 6.6 magnitude, struck at 9.22pm local time..

The government institute said it was centred in the remote and unpopulated Fiordland region, about 150km north-west of the country’s most southern city, Invercargill. It was measured at around 5km below ground level.

Local civil defence officials had issued a warning about a “potential tsunami” for the region, because of conflicting reports about the quake’s size. The Japanese meteorological agency put the preliminary magnitude at 7.8.

“There was a small wave, but it was not damage causing... people probably wouldn’t have noticed it among the other waves,” Civil Defence spokesman Vince Cholewa said.