He Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the Navy (SHOA) ruled out that there is a risk of tsunami on the coasts of Chile after a earthquake that shook Tonga this Sundaya country in the South Pacific inhabited by about 106,000 people.
The earthquake reached a magnitude of 6.6 and had its epicenter in the sea, 109 kilometers southwest of Neiafu.
#SHOA indicates that the characteristics of the magnitude 6.6 earthquake located 109 km SW of Neiafu, Tonga, DO NOT meet the necessary conditions to generate a tsunami on the coasts of Chile. More info at https://t.co/SzBA1gT70t
— SENAPRED (@Senapred) May 26, 2024
Tonga became famously known in January 2022, when an eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano was recorded, one of the most powerful ever observed and which even generated a tsunami on the Chilean coast.
Tonga is in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the areas of the planet with the greatest seismic activity and where tremors of different intensities occur almost daily.
At least 189 people died in Tonga and neighboring Samoa in a tsunami caused by two simultaneous earthquakes of magnitude 8 and 8.1 in September 2009.