Massive and deadly M 8.0 earthquake hit Santa Cruz Islands – Tsunami went 500 m inland damaging 3 villages

HERE By chillymanjaro– Posted on February 6, 2013Posted in: Editors’ picks, Seismic activity

Massive subduction earthquake, registered as M 8.0 (USGS/EMSC), hit Santa Cruz Islands at 01:12 UTC on February 6, 2013. The epicenter was located at coordinates 10.752°S, 165.089°E, about 81 km (50 miles) W of Lata, Solomon Islands at depth of 5.8 km (3.6 miles) (poorly constrained).

Update 06:00 UTC: Unfortunately the Lata Hospital is expecting further casualties of this tsunami. They have confirmed that around 700 people live in the 3 villages destroyed but many people would have escaped. If we take the Koshimura (2006) percentages seen in Banda Aceh from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. For a 2m tsunami, the death ratio was around 0.08-0.1 thus around 60-70 deaths would be expected. For a 0.9-1.1m tsunami as reported, the death ratio was around 0.01-0.025 which would mean around 7-18 deaths are to be expected using this function.

Update 05:26 UTC: At least 5 people have been killed in the tsunami. This earthquake is now CATDAT Red. Running on the trend of the tsunami in Japan – 4 of these were elderly victims (2 women, 2 men) and one was a 10-12 year old male.

Update 05:15-05:30 UTC: Nendo is home to around 5000 people and from what can be gathered the destroyed villages are to the west and south of the village of Lata which would mean that around 500 people are likely affected. It is likely that they would have left to higher ground given the intensity of the earthquake, however there is still no word as to their fate. No casualties have as yet been reported.

Update 04:35 UTC: Solomon authorities were telling the BBC that  : The wave went 500m inland damaging 3 villages. Houses have collapsed. The messages are dripping in very slowly as all the local authorities have been running for their live uphill.
ER: 500 meter inland, if true, is a huge tsunami, even at “only” 1 meter. Let us hope that most people made it uphill in time. Some older people way have had a hard time in reaching a safe higher location.

Update 04:18 UTC: Local officials in the Solomons said that 2 1.5-meter (4 foot, 11-inch) waves hit the epicenter side of Santa Cruz Island, damaging around 50 homes and properties. (ER) Fullreport HERE