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The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System provides near real-time alerts about natural disasters around the world and tools to facilitate response coordination, including media monitoring, map catalogues and Virtual On-Site Operations Coordination Centre.

 
 

Green Tsunami and Earthquake alert

 

Green Earthquake Alert in Off-shore area

Summary

On 2/18/2009 9:53:45 PM UTC an earthquake of magnitude 6.9 and depth 25km has struck an unpopulated area in Off-shore area. GDACS estimates the likelihood for need of international humanitarian intervention to be low (Green alert).

It is likely that a tsunami was generated. The maximum tsunami wave height near the coast of New Zealand will be 0m. Please refer to the GDACS tsunami report for more details.

This earthquake can have a low humanitarian impact since the affected region is unpopulated and has low vulnerability to natural disasters.

The nearest populated places are [None]. It is a flat region with a maximum altitude of -621 m.

Humanitarian Impact impact 
Population vulnerability vul 
Tsunami probability tsunami 
Landslide probability slope 
Nuclear radiation probability radiation 

Caution: this information is based on risk models. Whether international humanitarian aid is needed must be decided by an expert.

This email report was automatically created or updated by a computer on: 2/18/2009 11:17:09 PM UTC (1 hour 23 minutes after the event)

Explanation of alert calculation: Show

Tsunami wave height

tsunamimap
Google map Population map
poplegendPopulation Density near epicenter (people/km2). Image area: 6x4 decimal degrees (approx. 650x450km2).
population map

Earthquake epicentre: best estimate eq_logo    previous estimates: eq_icon

Earthquake Event

Geological map
geological map

Characteristics for this report

Information source World Data Centre for Seismology, Denver (NEIC)
Link to source event report (us2009dfb4)
PAGER report (2009dfb4)
Magnitude 6.9 M
Depth 25 km
Location

Geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude): -27.4149, -176.4187
Off-shore area
Seismic region: N.a.

The earthquake happened in Off-shore area. The nearest populated places are [None].

It is a flat region with a maximum altitude of -621 m.

Time time 2/18/2009 9:53:45 PM (UTC, Universal Standard Time)
2/18/2009 10:08:05 AM (Estimated local solar time)
Wed, 2/18/2009 22:53 CET (Brussels, Paris, Rome)
Wed, 2/18/2009 16:53 EST (New York, Washington)
Wed, 2/18/2009 13:53 PST (San Francisco, Los Angeles)
Thu, 2/19/2009 05:53 AWST (Australian Western Standard Time)

Previous reports for this earthquake.

Earthquake reportTsunami reportEvent Date/TimeLat/LonMagnitudeDepth (km)SourcePublication Date/TimeDelay
532151279 (Max. wave at coast: 0m) Max. wave at coast: 0m2/18/2009 9:53:43 PM UTC-27.3, -175.77.336NOAA (at00499402)2/18/2009 10:12:08 PM UTC18min
532161283 (Max. wave at coast: 0m) Max. wave at coast: 0m2/18/2009 9:53:49 PM UTC-27.3744, -176.4448762.2NEIC (us2009dfb4)2/18/2009 10:32:56 PM UTC39min
532171285 (Max. wave at coast: 0m) Max. wave at coast: 0m2/18/2009 9:53:45 PM UTC-27.4149, -176.41876.925NEIC (us2009dfb4)2/18/2009 11:17:09 PM UTC83min

Earthquake Impact Details

shakemap

Potentially affected People

The population in the area of this earthquake if 0 people/kmē. (Data source).

The earthquake occurred at 10h local time. At this time a day, more people are at work and therefore more vulnerable to collapsing office buildings. During traffic hours, people can be affected by collapsing bridges and other road infrastructure.

Population Data
Radius (km) Population Density (people/kmē)
1
2
5
10
20
50
100
200

Damage

Resilience and Vulnerability

Resilience is the capacity of the population to cope with a hazard. Since much of investments in earthquake preparedness and available funds for quick response is related to household income, the GDP per capita can be used as a rough indicator of resilience.

The earthquake epicenter is not located on the territory of a country. Therefore, no resilience information is available.

Based on the combination of 9 indicators, ECHO attributes Off-shore area a low vulnerability.

Exposure

Both conditions for survival and conditions for delivering aid strongly depend on the current weather and temperature. The following graphs show the current and forecast weather.

Current weather conditions and forecasts at earthquake location (lat: -27.4149 - long: -176.4187) (Data source).

Temperature chart currently not available. Try to refresh page.
Precipitation chart currently not available. Try to refresh page.
Cloud cover chart currently not available. Try to refresh page.

Probability of Secondary effects

slopelevel Landslides: The maximum slope in the area of the earthquake is 0% and the maximum altitude is -621 m. Since this is a low slope, the risk of earthquake induced landslides is low. Note, however, that the slope data is not reliable on a local scale, while landslides depend very much on local topography, soil and meteorological conditions. More...

tsunamilevel Tsunami: the JRC tsunami wave propagation models indicated a unknown likelihood for a destructive tsunami. However, this probability must be confirmed by oceanographic measurements or observations. See full report.

Critical infrastructure

The following critical infrastructure is nearby and could be affected by the earthquake:

The distance to nuclear installations is evaluated based on a 1999 UN dataset containing the location of nuclear plants in the world. If plants are near and the earthquake magnitude is above 6.5, the alert is set to orange. Note that the location of plants is approximate with errors of up to 100km.

Getting there and away

There is no airport within 100km.

Ports nearby are: [None]

Disclaimer

While we try everything to ensure accuracy, this information is purely indicative and should not be used for any decision making without alternate sources of information. The JRC is not responsible for any damage or loss resulting from the use of the information presented on this website.

 

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