Huge Quake Rocks World War II Battle Site

A devastating earthquake has battered a famous World War II location in the South Pacific. Initial reports pegged it as a 7.6 magnitude, but other information from two different sources said it was an 8.1 that hit on Monday morning, April 2.

The U.S. Geological Survey listed the event as a magnitude 7.6, but the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, both located closer to the point of origin, agreed it was an 8.1. The temblor struck at 7:39 AM local time in the western section of the Solomon Islands and was located about six miles under the ocean floor with the epicenter some 217 miles northwest of the capital of Honiara.

Honiara is located on the island of Guadalcanal. In the Pacific theater of operations during World War II, Guadalcanal was the site of a long, bloody battle that finally began repulsing the Japanese from the South Pacific, breaking their strangle hold on the region. The Solomons are a group of some one thousand islands covering over 521,000 square miles. English is the official language of its 538,000 inhabitants, but seventy-four indigenous languages are also spoken in this country. The closest neighbor of the Solomons is Papua New Guinea.

Fear of a tsunami raced through the region, from Papua New Guinea to as far north as Hawaii. This time, as compared to the recent event in Japan, the warning was justified. Just before communications were lost in the northwestern town of Gizo, a tidal wave reported to be several yards tall smashed into the area. A representative of the Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office, Julian McLeod, relayed thus far unconfirmed reports of at least two flooded villages. The Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation provided the next series of reliable information. Their report stated that Gizo and nearby Munda had suffered severe damage and that at least four people are missing.

Sergeant Godfrey Abiah of the Honiara police validated the tidal wave report from the Gizo police department before telephone lines went down. He said that while the quake was felt in the capital, no damage or injuries were reported there. Rescue teams are on their way to the area to assess the damage. Another phone call that came through before the phone wires fell gave an account of ten feet of water sweeping through Gizo after the initial wave, which was said to be quite a bit taller than the ensuing flood, creating a scene shockingly like the December 2004 Thailand tsunami.

Citizens have been warned to move to higher ground in case an aftershock triggers another tidal wave.