UPDATE: No Tsunami Threat After 7.8 Japan Earthquake

Bonin region of Japan earthquake, 5/30/15. Map courtesy USGS.

By Wendy Osher

There is no tsunami threat to Hawaiʻi after a 7.8 (since downgraded from a preliminary 8.5) magnitude earthquake reported in the Bonin Islands region of Japan at 1:23 a.m. HST on Saturday, May 30, 2015.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reports that based on all available data, a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected, and there is no tsunami threat to Hawaiʻi.

The agency states that there is no threat because the quake was located too deep within the earth (696 km/432 miles).

The USGS reports that the quake was located:

• 117 miles WNW of Chichi-shima, Japan;
• 479 miles SSE of Shimoda, Japan;
• 485 mi SSE of Oyama, Japan;
• 487 miles SE of Shingu, Japan; and
• 543 miles S of Tokyo, Japan.