Tiny Tsunami Hits but ‘You’d Never See It’
The sea water level in Hilo Bay fluctuated slightly Thursday morning as a seismic sea wave fanned across the Pacific from a major earthquake off Mexico, authorities said.
“What we saw was a maximum eight-inch peak-to-peak oscillation in Hilo,” said Gordon Burton, a geophysicist with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. “You’d never see it.”
Burton said the oscillation occurred over a roughly 15-minute period beginning at around 11 a.m. Hawaiian time (2 p.m. PDT), Burton said.
“We made good observations for comparison and for future reference,” said Hawaii County Civil Defense Administrator Harry Kim.
Tsunamis can be dangerous. On May 23, 1960, an earthquake in Chile created a seismic sea wave over 30 feet high that hit Hilo, killing 61 people and causing millions of dollars damage, Kim said.
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