Tsunami warning issued for Lord Howe Island

19/05/2023

ISSUED: 19 May 2023 at 2:50pm

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a tsunami warning for Lord Howe Island.

An undersea earthquake of magnitude 7.7 occurred at 12.57pm AEST to the southeast of Loyalty Islands or east-southeast of New Caledonia.

So far, a 22-centimetre tsunami wave has been observed near New Caledonia.

A Tsunami Warning for the marine environment is current for Lorde Howe island with an expected arrival time of 4:15pm local time (3:45pm AEST).

There is no land threat to the Australian mainland or Australian territories.

The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre is closely monitoring the situation
and will advise immediately if there is cause for concern.

Marine threat tsunami can generate dangerous rips, waves and strong currents that pose a risk to surfers, swimmers, people in small boats and anyone else in the water. There may be some localised flooding onto the immediate foreshore.

Tsunami waves are more powerful than the same size beach waves. There will be many waves and the first wave may not be the largest.

For detailed information about local conditions and tsunami arrival times, please visit the Joint Australian Tsunami Centre at http://www.bom.gov.au/tsunami/index.shtml

For latest and further information on tsunami warnings, please call 1300 TSUNAMI

(1300 878 626) or visit www.bom.gov.au/tsunami

For the media to best report a tsunami warning status, the tsunami media reporting guide is here: tsunami_media_guide.pdf (bom.gov.au)