October 08, 2009

**Note: Message taken from an email broadcast through PEACESAT Technical Headquarters in Honolulu, Hawaii. www.peacesat.hawaii.edu

The Tsunami Warnings and Watches for all areas have been cancelled.

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS:
ORIGIN TIME -  2203Z 07 OCT 2009
COORDINATES -  13.0 SOUTH  166.3 EAST
DEPTH       -   33 KM
LOCATION    -  VANUATU ISLANDS
MAGNITUDE   -  8.0

TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR
VANUATU / SOLOMON IS. / NAURU / PAPUA NEW GUINEA / TUVALU / NEW CALEDONIA / FIJI / KIRIBATI / KOSRAE / WALLIS-FUTUNA / HOWLAND-BAKER

TSUNAMI WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR
MARSHALL IS. / TOKELAU / KERMADEC IS / POHNPEI / NEW ZEALAND / SAMOA / AMERICAN SAMOA / TONGA / AUSTRALIA / NIUE / COOK ISLANDS / CHUUK / INDONESIA / WAKE IS. / JARVIS IS. / PALMYRA IS. / GUAM / N. MARIANAS / JOHNSTON IS. / YAP / MARCUS IS. / BELAU

IT IS NOT KNOWN THAT A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED.   ESTIMATED INITIAL TSUNAMI WAVE ARRIVAL TIMES AT FORECAST POINTS WITHIN THE WARNING AND WATCH AREAS ARE GIVEN BELOW. ACTUAL ARRIVAL TIMES MAY DIFFER AND THE INITIAL WAVE MAY NOT BE THE LARGEST. A TSUNAMI IS A SERIES OF WAVES AND THE TIME BETWEEN SUCCESSIVE WAVES CAN BE FIVE MINUTES TO ONE HOUR.

If a tsunami was generated, here are the estimated times of arrivals

KOSRAE: 0056Z (Lugo Skilling is notifying the Director to take preventive measures for the schools)
MAJURO: 0120Z
KWAJALEIN: 0123Z
ENIWETOK: 0149Z
POHNPEI:  0129Z
SAMOA: 0141Z
AMERICAN SAMOA:  0152Z
CHUUK: 0217Z
GUAM: 0320Z
SAIPAN: 0323Z
YAP: 0330Z
BELAU: 0344Z