Russia earthquake upgraded to a 8.7, tsunami watch for parts of the Pacific
USGS / Screenshot
The US geological survey has upgraded the magnitude 8.0 quake off Russia to a 8.7 quake which occured 133km south east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has issued a tsunami watch for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.
The Center says the potential tsunami impact is still being evaluated (as of 11:35am NZT).
It says if a threat exists, the earliest arrival for Guam, Rota, Saipan or Tinian would be 2.37pm Chamorro Standard Time.
It says a threat to American Samoa from this earthquake is still under investigation.
The US Geological Survey said hazardous tsunami waves were possible within next three hours along some coasts of Russia and Japan.
The Tsunami Warning centres says tsunami waves reaching more than three metres about the tide level are possible along some coasts:
It says tsunami waves reaching one to three metres above the tide level are possible some coasts of:
The warning centre says tsunami waves reaching 0.3 to one metre above the tide level are possible for some coasts of:
Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency has confirmed there is no threat to New Zealand after assessing the risk.
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Otago Daily Times
31-07-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Tsunami alert glitches to be investigated
By Liu Chen of RNZ The National Emergency Management Agency says it will look into reports of apparent inconsistencies in how people received the latest emergency alerts. Tsunami activity threat for NZ extended One man reported nearly 50 of the alarms ringing out on his phone, while others said they did not receive an alert about the tsunami risk from the magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia on Wednesday. NEMA spokesperson John Price said the agency sent out two alerts - the first on Wednesday afternoon about 4.15pm and a second at 6.30am on Thursday morning. Price said they would be looking into why some people received 30 to 50 alerts to understand why that had occurred. "It could be different providers and different cell towers, there's a lot of possibilities." There was always room for improvement, he said, but NEMA was doing the best with what it currently had. "We will be working with the platform providers, with these telecommunication providers as well, to get to the bottom of why this may have occurred. "So yes, we are taking this seriously, and we will look into it to make sure that we can provide the best service for New Zealanders." Marlborough resident Terry Costello said he got the first alert on Wednesday afternoon. Then another ... and another. "By the time I went to bed at 10pm, they were still going on and there'd be 32 of them by then. And I turned my phone off at 10pm and went to bed. "I turned it on again at 7am this morning and since then I've had another 16. So that's 48 altogether I've had." Costello said it just kept going, he would get an alert and then another one a minute or two later. "Sometimes they give you a bit of a fright." Bodhi Twilley, who lives in west Auckland's Titirangi, said the alerts started when he was driving home with his son. "I kind of lost count, but it just keep happening." He got at least two alerts in the car and then another few once he got home - but also that was on two devices which added to the number of alerts. "So we're just constantly going off." Twilley said he received another two or three alerts when he got up on Thursday morning and then a couple more after he had left home. "The messages were so frequent that we just stopped reading them, basically because they were coming to all our devices and to everyone in the house, so they were just constantly going off." Others received no alert Donna Glass from Christchurch has received alerts before but unlike Costello and Twilley, she did not receive a single one this time. She did not understand why some were getting them and others not - even when they were all in the same space. "There were the seven of us at our book club last night in Christchurch and out of the seven of us, only one person had received a text, an alert text." Rosemarie Quax, who lives in Hamilton, said there were three cell phones in her household and none received an alert. She only learned about the tsunami warning through media reports. "I was listening to RNZ this morning and they were talking about some people getting numerous alerts and in the week they were getting woken up and I just said to my husband, 'well we didn't receive anything'." Price said the message was only directed to those people in areas that were deemed at risk and anyone who later entered an at risk area would receive the message at that point. Anyone in central New Zealand, for example, would not have received an emergency mobile alert because there was no need for them to get it, he said. People with their phones in flight mode or whose phones were turned off would not receive the alert, he said. Asked why if there were seven people in the same room only one got an emergency message on their phone, Price said the agency was looking into that. "I think the important thing is the message was received by some people there and therefore they have hopefully acted on the message." The system is tested annually across all of New Zealand and was last tested in May this year, he said. The tests have shown that the alerts cover about 90% of the country because there are some areas which do not have cell phone coverage, he said. Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell told RNZ there appeared to have been a glitch and NEMZ was working with telecommunications providers to resolve it. "What I've been told is it can be people standing, changing over different cell towers and it's triggering another alert. So those are glitches that we need to work on. "I mean, the good thing is that, like I said, the system hasn't been used for a long time nationally. So it's good that that these issues have been highlighted so that we can get to work and fix them." However, Mitchell said he was pleased with the authority's response to the tsunami warnings. "We've been proactive and we're making sure that people get the information they need that they can make the decisions that they have to make. "There's nothing alarmist about it. It's quite something the best information that we have at the time." He urged people to heed the officials' warnings in an emergency like this to avoid putting themselves and others in danger.
Otago Daily Times
31-07-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Tsunami threat extended
Emergency authorities have again extended a tsunami activity threat for New Zealand overnight, following a giant earthquake near Russia. The 8.8 magnitude quake struck off Russia's remote east coast on Wednesday, triggering tsunami waves on multiple countries' shores. NEMA to investigate tsunami alert glitches The quake is tied for the sixth-strongest ever recorded, and the strongest since 2011, when a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit northeast Japan, triggering a devastating tsunami. Tsunami currents reached parts of New Zealand overnight on Wednesday and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) warned the first surges were unlikely to be the largest. In an update at 8pm today, NEMA said the east coast of the North and South Islands, the West Coast of the South Island from Farewell Spit to Punakaiki, including Westport, and the Chatham Islands, remain under a national advisory due to "rebounding tsunami activity from South America". NEMA said it was likely the advisory would remain overnight on Thursday. "We expect New Zealand coastal areas to experience strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore." NEMA said the rest of the West Coast of the South Island and Cook Strait that remain under a beach and marine tsunami threat are assessed as only just reaching the threshold for a beach and marine tsunami threat. Another update would be made about 8am on Friday. Areas under threat • The West Coast of the North Island from CAPE REINGA to AHIPARA. • The East and South Coasts of the North Island from CAPE REINGA to MAKARA including Whangarei, GREAT BARRIER ISLAND, the East Coast of Auckland, Waiheke Island, Waitemata Harbour, Tauranga, Whakatane, Opotiki, Gisborne, Napier, Lake Ferry, the Wellington south coast and Wellington Harbour. • The West Coast of the South Island from FAREWELL SPIT to PUNAKAIKI including Westport. • The North and East Coasts of the South Island from FAREWELL SPIT to the CATLINS including Nelson, Picton, the Marlborough Sounds, Kaikoura, Christchurch, Banks Peninsula, Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula. • The South Coast of the South Island from PUYSEGUR POINT to THE CATLINS including Invercargill. • STEWART ISLAND and the CHATHAM ISLANDS. 'Still a live situation' NEMA earlier said the threat must be regarded as real until the tsunami alert was cancelled. Its director Civil Defence Emergency Management, John Price told RNZ's Checkpoint programme on Thursday afternoon that New Zealand was not out of the woods just yet and urged caution. "We still have a very live situation, we still have tsunami activity and a body of water that is causing concerns." He says that is predominately on the east coast of the North and South Island. Price asked people to stay out of the water and away from the shore. "Absolutely, this is a body of water that creates unseasonal tide activity, current activity, will continue to cause potentially injury or loss of life if people go into the water or near water." That was the reason for sending texts to Kiwis to remind them to stay away from coastal areas. However, there had been a glitch with the alert system which resulted in some people receiving multiple texts, Price said. There have been two official alerts and NEMA would be trying to work out why some people had received more than that. Ninety percent of people entering a tsunami wave died, Price said. "You will see unusually high tidal surges, you'll see unusually high currents and the water level is unpredictable and it's the unpredictability of this that will potentially cause great danger to people."
Otago Daily Times
31-07-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Tsunami alert: NEMA to investigate glitches
By Liu Chen of RNZ The National Emergency Management Agency says it will look into reports of apparent inconsistencies in how people received the latest emergency alerts. Tsunami activity threat for NZ extended One man reported nearly 50 of the alarms ringing out on his phone, while others said they did not receive an alert about the tsunami risk from the magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia on Wednesday. NEMA spokesperson John Price said the agency sent out two alerts - the first on Wednesday afternoon about 4.15pm and a second at 6.30am on Thursday morning. Price said they would be looking into why some people received 30 to 50 alerts to understand why that had occurred. "It could be different providers and different cell towers, there's a lot of possibilities." There was always room for improvement, he said, but NEMA was doing the best with what it currently had. "We will be working with the platform providers, with these telecommunication providers as well, to get to the bottom of why this may have occurred. "So yes, we are taking this seriously, and we will look into it to make sure that we can provide the best service for New Zealanders." Marlborough resident Terry Costello said he got the first alert on Wednesday afternoon. Then another ... and another. "By the time I went to bed at 10pm, they were still going on and there'd be 32 of them by then. And I turned my phone off at 10pm and went to bed. "I turned it on again at 7am this morning and since then I've had another 16. So that's 48 altogether I've had." Costello said it just kept going, he would get an alert and then another one a minute or two later. "Sometimes they give you a bit of a fright." Bodhi Twilley, who lives in west Auckland's Titirangi, said the alerts started when he was driving home with his son. "I kind of lost count, but it just keep happening." He got at least two alerts in the car and then another few once he got home - but also that was on two devices which added to the number of alerts. "So we're just constantly going off." Twilley said he received another two or three alerts when he got up on Thursday morning and then a couple more after he had left home. "The messages were so frequent that we just stopped reading them, basically because they were coming to all our devices and to everyone in the house, so they were just constantly going off." Others received no alert Donna Glass from Christchurch has received alerts before but unlike Costello and Twilley, she did not receive a single one this time. She did not understand why some were getting them and others not - even when they were all in the same space. "There were the seven of us at our book club last night in Christchurch and out of the seven of us, only one person had received a text, an alert text." Rosemarie Quax, who lives in Hamilton, said there were three cell phones in her household and none received an alert. She only learned about the tsunami warning through media reports. "I was listening to RNZ this morning and they were talking about some people getting numerous alerts and in the week they were getting woken up and I just said to my husband, 'well we didn't receive anything'." Price said the message was only directed to those people in areas that were deemed at risk and anyone who later entered an at risk area would receive the message at that point. Anyone in central New Zealand, for example, would not have received an emergency mobile alert because there was no need for them to get it, he said. People with their phones in flight mode or whose phones were turned off would not receive the alert, he said. Asked why if there were seven people in the same room only one got an emergency message on their phone, Price said the agency was looking into that. "I think the important thing is the message was received by some people there and therefore they have hopefully acted on the message." The system is tested annually across all of New Zealand and was last tested in May this year, he said. The tests have shown that the alerts cover about 90% of the country because there are some areas which do not have cell phone coverage, he said. Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell told RNZ there appeared to have been a glitch and NEMZ was working with telecommunications providers to resolve it. "What I've been told is it can be people standing, changing over different cell towers and it's triggering another alert. So those are glitches that we need to work on. "I mean, the good thing is that, like I said, the system hasn't been used for a long time nationally. So it's good that that these issues have been highlighted so that we can get to work and fix them." However, Mitchell said he was pleased with the authority's response to the tsunami warnings. "We've been proactive and we're making sure that people get the information they need that they can make the decisions that they have to make. "There's nothing alarmist about it. It's quite something the best information that we have at the time." He urged people to heed the officials' warnings in an emergency like this to avoid putting themselves and others in danger.
