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Tsunami Event - September 29, 2009 Samoa
Field Survey Photographs

Samoa Tsunami Event Page | Model Data Comparison Plots | Local American Samoa Modeling Results | Web Link Compilation

About the Photographs

These photographs show the destruction caused by the September 29 tsunami at Tutuilla located in America Samoa. Dr. Vasily Titov (pictured), Director of the NOAA Center for Tsunami Research, was on hand to document the event and take part in a post tsunami survey of the area.

About the tsunami

The Samoa tsunami was generated by a Mw 8.0 earthquake (15.559˚S, 172.093˚W ), at 17:48 UTC, 195 km (125 miles) south of Apia, Samoa (according to the USGS). In approximately an hour, the tsunami was recorded at DART® buoys 51425 and 51426. Forecast results shown below were created in real time (during the tsunami propagation) with the NOAA forecast method using MOST model with the tsunami source inferred from DART® data.

The tsunami waves first arrived at Pago Pago, American Samoa, (approximately 250 km from earthquake epicenter) earlier than other tide gages, at 18:08 UTC, about 20 minutes after the earthquake.

Experiencing Tsunamis - Researcher Interview with Dr. Vasily Titov

Model and DART® buoy data / tide gage data comparison

See also

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PMEL and NOAA contacts

When using information from this page, please credit NOAA / PMEL / Center for Tsunami Research