BIG EARTHQUAKE RECORDED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 283, 9 September 1948, Page 6

BIG EARTHQUAKE RECORDED

Fiji and Samoa Alerted TIDAL WAVE FEARED f N.Z.P.A.—OonvriehtL (Reo. 12.30.) HONOLULU, Sept. 8. A big earthquake which occurred between Fiji and Samoa wag recorded here by the coast and geodetic survey. The first shock was recorded at 3.17 p.in., GALT.,.and shocks were continuing two hours later. The Army said there was no danger, but the islands bad been alerted because of a possible tidal wave. An abnormally large earthquake, probably in the sea off the Tonga Group, was recorded at 3.14 a.m. today on the seismograph at the Dominion Observatory in Wellington, savs a Press Association message.

Mr R. C. Hayes, of the observatory, placed the centre at a distance . of about 1600 miles from New Zealand, probably in the Tonga deep, a narrow trench lying nearly north and southeast of the Tongan Islands, where the sea is nearly five miles deep. The intensity of the earthquake was 7!} on the instrument magnitude scale, in which six is a minor destructive shock, and Si is the largest shock recorded.

Mr Hayes said the seismograph continued to be disturbed for over four hours.

Strong after-shocks were recorded at LS a.m., 4.17 a.m. and 4.52 a.m.

A message received by the observnaory through the Meteorological Office states that the earthquake was felt in Niue Island, but no details were given, of its intensity.