Japan's Pacific coast hit by tsunami after Tonga eruption

Another underwater eruption, and I hope that there wont be the "tsunami" of pumice again!

Workers here are still cleaning up the literal tons upon tons of these rocks after the last one.

Stay safe everyone.

To even effect us here all the way here means those islands near Tonga are in deep trouble. Hope everyone there is alright too.

Terrible scenes coming in from Tonga with the tsunami surging, flooding houses reminiscent of 2011. They will definitely need immediate emergency help there.

Thoughts & prayers are with ALL people affected by this eruption and resulting tsunami. Life on the Pacific Rim is tempestuous.

That satellite video is AWESOME!

Not sure what all this means for the rest of the Pacific @zichi 7am: “Powerful event showing the nature erupting releasing magnum and steam generation causing a tsunami around the Pacific.” - (Was this a translation ?)

“… *showing a natural eruption releasing …” *magnum = magma ??

Hopefully everyone is safe.

Alright so far here on Amami.

A few bleary drivers coming home after evacuating.

Sending best wishes to The Friendly Islands.

Awesome video at the first few seconds of the link, too. No word on injuries of those in Tonga itself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRgeQvQooSA

Overblown panic.

Alarms going off all night. Had to turn off all devices and that's good in a way. Hope everyone here and in and around Tonga are OK as well.

Tsunami can be equally devastating to an overblown ego and the overly confident they’re never in danger. While Victoria is relatively safe, even coastal British Columbia, Canada, also on the Pacific Rim, were issued a warning:

https://www.emergencyinfobc.gov.bc.ca/tsunami-advisory-bc-jan15/

@TrevorPeace 9:21am: “Overblown panic.” -

@zichi

That would be magma not magnum ol chap.

@TrevorPeace

As someone who lived through the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake you don't mess with mother nature.

There is no overblown panic. We go through yearly disaster drills preparing for such situations. Everybody here takes warnings seriously.

It is those that don't who usually feel the consequences of their foolish inactions.

Hope everyone is fine in the Pacific Island.

As Earth Sciences is my field, I am always impressed by the beauty of a volcanic eruption and the power of nature.

zichiToday  07:00 am JST

Powerful event showing the nature erupting releasing magnum...

Don't you mean "magma". Thinking of Dr. Evil saying to Austin Powers, 'liquid hot magma'....

It was a natural event @JessieLee 11:01am no ‘sharks with friggin’ laser beams’ have been spotted.

@JessieLee 11:01am: [*zichi 7:00 am; “Powerful event showing the nature erupting releasing magnum...]*

“Don't you mean "magma". Thinking of Dr. Evil saying to Austin Powers, 'liquid hot magma'....”

“depends on which side of the bottle you are viewing” @7:00am !?!? -That’s an early ‘happy hour’. Those tsunami warnings have been nerve racking for those just ab walk from the beach.

"a 1.1-meter tsunami" How did they notice?

You know, there are measurement devices along the coast

It was reported that the plumes of smoke, gas, ash cloud (~700 km wide) reached an altitude of 20km.

The gigantic magnitude of eruption is absolute scary, not sure if the figures are correct.

Pacific islanders, run for your life and stay safe..

"a 1.1-meter tsunami" How did they notice?

????? clearly you need to LEARN what a tsunami ACTUALLY is compared to everyday waves, hint, they are not even remotely the same, now go study up on this!

Everybody here takes warnings seriously.

Now maybe, but it wont last forever as people failed to heed the warnings that were posted by people in the past.

And I also dont agree that "everybody" heeds warnings either, every year people die here in Japan because they DON'T. Need examples? Falling of roofs in typhoons, falling off roofs, shovelings snow, eating mochi at new year's etc etc etc.

People become numb to the warnings and that is just human nature I guess, but it does show that not "everybody" takes warnings seriously here.

What I found most interesting is that in some places tidal waves came and went repeatedly over a period of several hours.

Always humbling to see natural disasters happening, with humans not able to do much about it.

Nice !!!

NHK midday news showed helicopter footage of many sunken trawlers in Iwate harbors and elsewhere.

I expect hundreds of fairly large fishing boats have been sunk overnight by the tsunami here in Japan alone, although most US news sources seem not to mention Japan at all.

So much for those overly confident while safe thousands of miles away claiming early this morning this was just “overblown panic”. Tsunami warnings were given as far away as coastal towns near Victoria, British Columbia.

Kudos! - Gotta credit again to JT for continually updating these headlines throughout the day, on a Sunday. Family abroad are released to know ‘when & where’. Well done.

correction to 5:02pm: “ …relieved…” - Regards

Tsunamis are usually caused by earthquakes. But, this time, they were caused by an underwater volcanic eruption. Naturally, there were no initial tsunami warnings issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency. 

One thing that is mysterious about this underwater eruption, to an unprecedented scale, is an almost perfect circle seen around the plume. (See the space photo.) 

Seems there are many unknowns about underwater volcanic eruptions.

Nature flexing it's muscles.

I find the photo at the top of the picture intriguing, why did four of the boats sink or turn turtle yet the other four alongside remain afloat?

Could have been a lot worse, and has been for Tonga.

Better safe than sorry every time Trevor Peace. If you live in a danger zone take precautions. We are lucky, the last Tsunami to hit the UK is believed to have been in the 1500’s possibly caused by an undersea landslide. Japan isn’t quite so lucky and wisely take precautions.

The Avenger

Today 07:54 am JST

That satellite video is AWESOME!

Double feeling here. Maybe for you awesome but for the people in that area must be a terrifying moment. Would it not be better to keep those thoughts how awesome the video is, for yourself and have some consideration for the affected people.

Btw, at least the great sea wall the government build after 2011 might finally show it's use. Considering it was design to take even waves of 10meters. So there is that right?

Tragic time for Tonga. Hope they recover fast. Nature can be so beautiful, yet so violent at the same time.

Not quite 1883 Krakatoa, but still, biggly boom. Be well Tonga.

Give if you can to her recovery.

Also interesting is that islands like Guam and the Marianas suffered no effects. I remember after the huge tsunami originating in Indonesia that swept around the Indian Ocean thinking Diego Garcia was going to be destroyed, but the island did not experience any tidal surge. Small islands like these must not have enough shoreline to cause the water to rise up in a tsunami. Rather it seems like they are a point sticking up in the ocean and the energy of the tsunami just passes around them.