Wave threat recedes, damage extent unclear

The tsunami threat around the Pacific from a huge undersea volcanic eruption began to recede yesterday, while the extent of damage to Tonga remained unclear.

Satellite images showed the spectacular eruption that took place Saturday evening, with a plume of ash, steam and gas rising like a mushroom above the blue Pacific waters. A sonic boom could be heard as far away as Alaska.

In nearby Tonga it sent tsunami waves crashing across the shore and people rushing to higher ground.

Aid agencies said thick ash and smoke was continuing to affect Tonga’s air and water, and that authorities were asking people to wear masks and drink bottled water.

Dave Snider, the tsunami warning co-ordinator for the National Tsunami Warning Centre in Palmer, Alaska, said it was very unusual for a volcanic eruption to affect an entire ocean basin, and the spectacle was both ‘‘humbling and scary.’’

The tsunami waves caused damage to boats as far away as New Zealand and Santa Cruz, California, but did not appear to cause any widespread damage. Tsunami advisories were earlier issued for Japan, Hawaii, Alaska and the US Pacific coast. The US Geological Survey estimated the eruption caused the equivalent of a magnitude 5.8 earthquake. Scientists said tsunamis generated by volcanoes rather than earthquakes are relatively rare.

The Tonga Meteorological Services said a tsunami warning was declared for all of the archipelago, and data from the Pacific tsunami centre said waves of 80 centimetres were detected.

Rachel Afeaki-Taumoepeau, who chairs the New Zealand Tonga Business Council, said she hoped the relatively low level of the tsunami waves would have allowed most people to get to safety, although she worried about those living on islands closest to the volcano. –

An Auckland MIQ worker who tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday has the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The Ministry of Health confirmed the variant in a statement yesterday, also announcing 25 new cases in the community and 43 at the border.

All the case’s seven household contacts identified have been contacted, isolated and tested, and returned a negative result, the ministry said. A further 48 close contacts are in the process of being contacted, asked to isolate and get tested. Fifteen of these contacts have returned a negative test result.

The case and one household contact are now isolating in a MIQ facility. The remaining close contacts are isolating at locations in Auckland and Taupō.

Whole genome sequencing has linked the MIQ worker to two returnees within the facility who travelled from India. They arrived on January 8 and tested positive two days later. The MIQ worker is deemed to have been infectious from January 10.

Yesterday’s community cases were in Auckland (15), Northland (one), Waikato (two), Bay of Plenty (three), Lakes (two), Hawke’s Bay (one) and Wellington (one).