Samoa Tsunami at Waitemata Harbour 

Wave Details

Time of arrival of first wave* 7.2 h
Height of the first wave 0.017 m
Time of arrival of highest wave* 8.8 h
Height of the highest wave 0.34 m
Period of the highest wave 14.0 min

* hours after the earthquake.

Commentary

Waitemata Harbour is protected by the islands in the Hauraki Gulf, so the waves were small.

Figure 1. Samoa tsunami at Waitemata Harbour showing: A. long wave record, denoised to remove spurious waves; B. height of each wave; and C. period of each wave. EQ denotes the time of the earthquake (17:48 on 29 Sep 2009, UTC).

Figure 2. Samoa tsunami at Waitemata Harbour showing: A. raw long wave record; B. distribution of significant wave height with time and period. EQ denotes the time of the earthquake (17:48 on 29 Sep 2009, UTC).

How were these calculated?
Return to top
Back to Map