Coastal residents in Matata evacuated to higher ground after tsunami warnings on Friday. The three big offshore earthquakes that triggered a tsunami warning sending hundreds of thousands of Kiwis to higher ground, could make it into the history books as the sequence has never been recorded before. Tsunami expert Dr Willem De Lange, who has spent 40 years monitoring tsunami activity in New Zealand waters, described Friday’s quakes as a natural phenomenon. De Lange said the “Tonga trench” is a “seismically active” zone with around 215 earthquakes of magnitude six. The last major tsunami warning affecting New Zealand was in 2011 with Japan’s magnitude 9 earthquake reaching all coasts of New Zealand.

Source: Stuff March 08, 2021 03:53 UTC