Subject
Earthquakes ; elastic waves ; French Polynesia ; magnitude ; observations ; ocean waves ; Oceania ; oceanography ; Pacific Ocean ; Polynesia ; seismic waves ; seismology ; Society Islands ; Tahiti ; Tonga ; tsunamis ; human perception, info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/551

Domains
Géologie

Description

We report human perception of seismic waves generated on the island of
Tahiti by exceptionally large Twaves, following a major earthquake in the Tonga
area. The generation mechanism of the T waves and their smaller amplitudes at
other Pacific stations are explained in relation to source and receiver bathymetry, focal mechanism, and magnitude of the event. It is concluded that a series of
favorable path conditions, rather than the size of the event (Ms = 7.8; Mw = 8.1), were responsible for the giant T waves felt at Tahiti.

Keywords

Language
English (en-GB)

Creators
Talandier Jacques, Okal Emile

Contributors

Sources
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 69, No. 5, pp. 1475-1486, October 1979

Relation
https://doi.org/10.1785/BSSA0690051475

Coverage
Tahiti, Tonga

Name of newspaper
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America