A tsunami advisory has been canceled for Alaska after an undersea volcano erupted near Tonga. Some Alaska communities did see significant waves, but officials did not issue an evacuation warning.
“We’re not going to try to put you in a warning right now,” Scott Langley, senior electronics technician for the National Tsunami Warning Center, told KUCB Saturday morning.
An advisory means a dangerous wave is on the way, according to the National Weather Service — but the wave is expected to be between 1 to 3 feet.
The Tsunami Warning Center canceled the advisory for Alaska in a bulletin issued at 3:31 p.m., though it remained in effect for the California coast. Earlier bulletins included coastal areas from Southeast Alaska to the western Aleutians.
In Alaska, the largest waves hit the Aleutians and Alaska Peninsula, Langley said. He said the 900-person community of King Cove has recorded waves of just over two feet. If those waves were to reach one meter — about 3.2 feet — he said the center would issue an evacuation warning.
The center hasn’t received any reports of damage from King Cove, Langley added — the only damage reported so far in the U.S. has been in Hawaii and California.
Dave Snider, the tsunami warning coordinator for the National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, said the volcano — Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai — has been erupting for at least a day.
But early Saturday morning there was a massive eruption.
“And then another eruption occurred, and this one seemed to be even larger and it sent a wave across the Pacific of basin-wide impact overnight,” Snider said.
By 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, the weather service reported waves arriving in the Aleutian Chain of just over a foot in Nikolski and just under a foot in Atka and Adak.
“We’re waking up to an expectation of the possibility of 1-2 feet of a tsunami along the Alaska shoreline,” Snider said.
While that wave height wouldn’t necessarily send coastal Alaskans running for the hills, it’s still dangerous, especially for people who live or work on boats or low lying coastal areas.
“So, if you’re a person in a liveaboard in Juneau or anywhere else in the Alaska coastline, you need to take this seriously. It would be a good time to get away from your boat, move to higher ground and away from the marina. Move up above that really low coastal area there,” Snider said.
It doesn’t take much of a tsunami wave to toss a boat around.
“We do have some minor damage, I think, reported in Hawaii. Nothing too significant coming in yet, but it did include a boat that was moved up out of the water and onto the dock,” Snider said.
A twitter user named Dr. Faka’iloatonga Taumoefolau reported hearing a violent volcanic eruption and that the sky was getting darker, raining ash and tiny pebbles.
Can literally hear the volcano eruption, sounds pretty violent. pic.twitter.com/gX6z2lSJWf
— Dr Faka’iloatonga Taumoefolau (@sakakimoana) January 15, 2022
There are no immediate reports of injuries or damage on Tonga, though communications with the small island nation are cut off according to the Associated Press.
“What we saw in Hawaii was impacts lasting for several hours, at least two to three hours after the initial wave continued,” Snider said. “So we’ll be watching this throughout the morning here.”
This story has been updated.