The west coast of the United States and Canada was hit by a tsunami that was produced by the eruption of an underwater volcano on the island of Tonga this Saturday, which exceeded meter in height and generated slight flooding in part of California.
“A tsunami is taking place along the coast of Alaska, British Columbia Canada and the west coast of the United States ”, reported the United States Tsunami Warning Service on its Twitter account.
So far, waves reaching between 7 centimeters have been recorded in Alameda , California, up to one meter with 24 centimeters in Port San Luis, about 300 kilometers north of Los Angeles, according to the tsunami warning service belonging to the National Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Port San Luis just had a 3.1 ft surge (residual) from the ongoing tsunami. Here is the latest water levels display for Port San Luis from NOAA https://t.co/BaLGCgVPjU #SoCal #cawx #TsunamiAdvisory
— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) January 15, 2022
A #tsunami is occurring. Tsunami Advisories have been ended for portions of Southcentral and Southeast Alaska- they continue elsewhere. See https://t.co/npoUHxWBas for the latest. Port San Luis, CA: 1.3m King Cove, AK: 3.3 ft Crescent City, CA: 1.0 ft Point Reyes, CA: 2.9 ft pic.twitter.com/HeZJldZlxZ
— NWS Tsunami Alerts (@NWS_NTWC) January 15, 2022
Although the Californian coast is 8,700 kilometers away from the island of Tonga, the place where the volcanic eruption took place, its ravages were noted in US territory.
According to Elizabeth Smith, speaking to CNN, city manager of Santa Cruz, California, the tsunami caused a slight flooding in the port of that city, closing beaches and evacuating people in commercial areas near the coast.
Soquel Creek in Santa Cruz flowing *backwardsbecause of a tsunami 🤯 pic.twitter.com/Jx FsllhhdX
— robwormald (@robwormald) January 15, 2022
Likewise, the Los Angeles division of the National Weather Service (NWS) reported that there was flooding as far as the parking area near the beach in Port San Luis, where higher waves were reported.
According to the Berkeleyside media, around
were evacuated people from boats and docks in the coastal area of Berkeley, California, noting that an alert was issued in most of the beaches in the south of the state.
BREAKING: Tsunami has reached the US west coast as flooding reported in Santa Cruz, California following major volcano eruption off coast of Tonga. #California #TongaVolcano pic.twitter.com/LRkweLeC7g
— Global News Network (@GlobalNews77) January 15, 2022
Despite the emergency, the NWS removed a Tsunami warning in Hawaii hours after it was issued because it was not waves of a height similar to those of the California coast were recorded.
Despite this, NOAA maintains a Tsunami warning in California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, as well as British Columbia in Canada.
The climatic emergency was generated after the eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga, an island in the South Pacific, causing a tsunami to hit the coasts in several nations, including the south of the continent, specifically in Chile.
“ Waves of 1.2 meters have been recorded in Nuju’alofa“, capital of Tonga, whose population is about 24,500, noted the Australian Weather Service.
