By American Geophysical Union – Scientists have uncovered the source of a mysterious 2021 tsunami that sent waves around the globe. In August 2021, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit near the South Sandwich Islands, creating a tsunami that rippled around the globe. The epicenter was 47 kilometers below the Earth's surface—too deep to initiate a tsunami—and the rupture was nearly 400 kilometers long, which should have generated a much larger earthquake.
A 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck in the South Pacific on Thursday, generating a tsunami that threatened island nations in the region. The quake struck at just after midnight on Thursday local time (1320 GMT Wednesday) about 415 kilometers east of Vao in New Caledonia at a depth of 10 kilometers, according to the US Geological Survey.
Two earthquakes of 7 and 5.9 degrees of magnitude on the Ritcher scale shook Chile on Saturday, just thirty minutes apart, at Antarctica and in the center of Chile, with Chilean authorities calling to evacuate the coastal areas due to the risk of a tsunami, as a consequence of confusing alert messages.
An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 struck off the coast of south-central Chile on Sunday, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said, but Chilean officials immediately discarded the risk of a tsunami.
Scientists have found evidence of ancient slope failures on the seafloor to the south of the Falkland Islands on the South Atlantic. Computer models suggest these underwater landslides would have been capable of sending waves crashing on to the Falklands' coastline that was tens of meters high.
Venice's St Mark's Square was closed on Sunday as the historic city suffered its third major flooding in less than a week, while rain lashing the rest of Italy prompted warnings in Florence and Pisa.
The alert level for Indonesia's Anak Krakatau volcano has been raised to the second-highest level possible, after a series of eruptions, while all flights around the volcano have been rerouted and a 5km (three-mile) exclusion zone has also been imposed.
At least 220 people have been killed and 843 injured after a tsunami hit coastal towns on Indonesia's Sunda Strait government officials say. There was no warning of the giant waves which struck at Saturday night, destroying hundreds of buildings, sweeping away cars and uprooting trees.
A tsunami in Indonesia after the eruption of the Anak Krakatau Volcano killed at keast 222 people, while hundrerds more were reported either injured or missing, local authorities explained Sunday. They were cautious, though, since these are just preliminary figures.
An earthquake measuring 6.2 degrees on the Richter scale struck Chile's Easter Islands in the South Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, US and Chilean seismic centres reported, while an ensuing tsunami was ruled out.