EMERGENCY!!!!!! TSUNAMI WARNING NSW AUSTRALIA

The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre is warning of dangerous waves from Gabo Island north to Seal Rocks, including Sydney Harbour and Botany Bay.

Although evacuations are not required, the centre warns people to move away from the immediate water's edge and not go to the beaches to look at the waves.

Lord Howe Island is facing a more serious threat of major land inundation and residents are urged to go to higher ground or at least one kilometre inland.

The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre said a tsunami has been observed at Port Kembla at 10:06pm.

Earlier this evening, a Bureau of Meteorology said it remained a possibility waves could develop and hit Australia's coast.

"It's quite rare that this would happen. At the moment no waves have been recorded but an alert has been issued for NSW and large parts of the east coast,'' she told AAP.

"We're continuing to monitor and update the situation.''

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said any waves would strike Lord Howe Island between 9.30pm Wednesday and midnight.

In Sydney a performance of Princess Cabaret at the Bondi Pavilion was cancelled after the tsunami warning and all theatregoers ejected from the beachfront venue.

The US Geological Survey said the epicentre of the earthquake was about 160km west of the city of Invercargill, on South Island, at a depth of 33 kilometres, US Geological Survey (USGS) reported.

Police in the town of Tuatapere on South Island say they have reports of minor cracks in buildings and stock falling from supermarket shelves, but there'd been no reports of serious damage or injuries so far.

The quake was felt widely across the South Island.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre also issued a warning, saying: "An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines in the region near the epicentre within minutes to hours''.

AAP and smh.com.au

Posted 1 hour 0 minutes ago
Updated 41 minutes ago

The Bureau of Meteorology says a tsunami warning issued earlier tonight is still current, however they are not expecting a major threat of inundation to land.

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the south-west coast of New Zealand's South Island shortly before 7:30pm AEST, prompting a tsunami warning for south of the Hunter in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island.

A bureau spokesman on Lord Howe Island says a land inundation warning is still current for the island, with the chance of some flooding in low lying areas.

"It's dark, you can't see what's happening on the reef," he said.

"Police have moved some people from the sea level areas."

However, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania have marine warnings issued.

Tectonic Summary
The North and South Islands of New Zealand straddle the boundary between the Australian and Pacific plates. Along this boundary through southern New Zealand, the Australian Plate moves to the northeast at a rate of 35-45 mm/yr relative to the Pacific plate. In Southwestern South Island, this motion is accommodated by oblique convergence at the Puysegur Trench, where the Australian Plate subducts beneath the Pacific Plate. Further north along the South Islands’ west coast, relative motion is accommodated via oblique strike-slip movement along the Alpine Fault, driving the uplift of the Southern Alps.

The recent (09/07/15) thrust earthquake occurred near the southern tip of South Island in a region known as Fiordland, in a complex area of transition in plate boundary structure from Puysegur subduction to Alpine fault strike-slip motion. The preliminary location, depth, and estimate of fault orientation of this event are consistent with the earthquake having resulted from slip on the subduction thrust interface between the Pacific and Australian plates. The deformed Australian plate beneath Fiordland is highly active both along its’ interface with the Pacific plate and internal to the subducted Australian plate. Over the past two decades, several large earthquakes have occurred in Fiordland, predominantly in a cluster to the northeast of today’s earthquake. Though the faulting mechanisms of those events are similar to today’s earthquake, their slip vectors are rotated clockwise with respect to plate motions, and thus may not represent exactly the same style of faulting.

The most recent of these previous large events occurred in August of 2003 when a magnitude 7.2 earthquake approximately 100 km to the northwest caused minor damage in Otago and Southland, and numerous landslides across the Fiordland region. A magnitude 7.0 event on August 10, 1993 caused power outages in the Te Anau area and was felt throughout South Island and as far away as Sydney, Australia. A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck on May 31, 1989 and was felt strongly in the southwestern part of South Island and a magnitude 6.7 quake struck on June 3, 1988.

Tsunami threat cancelled following New Zealand

July 15, 2009 12:00am
FEARS of a tsunami striking Australian shores have calmed after a Wednesday night earthquake generated only a tiny wave.

The New Zealand quake rumbled the South Island around 7.22pm, prompting tsunami warnings for all low-lying coastal areas from New South Wales to Victoria.

Two hours after the quake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre reported that any sea changes would be small and no tsunami would occur.

The centre reported that the wave generated by the quake was less than 20 centimetres high and posed no threat.

A tsunami alert had urged residents to move to higher ground and buildings were evacuated in areas across the pacific.

Residents stayed on alert throughout the night after the official tsunami warning was cancelled as a marine warning for possible rough seas remained in place.

A spokeswoman for the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology said the chances of a tsunami wave hitting Australia is quite rare.

"We're continuing to monitor and update the situation," she said.

Residents on Lord Howe Island, off the east coast of Australia, had faced the most serious warnings.

There was a threat of flooding and dangerous waves for several hours.

The US Geological Survey says the powerful 7.8-magnitude undersea quake struck west of Invercargill on New Zealand's South Island.

It's believed the epicentre was 161km off the coast of New Zealand's South Island at a depth of 33km.

Police in the town of Tuatapere on South Island say they have reports of minor cracks in buildings and stock falling from supermarket shelves.

But they have received no reports of serious damage or injuries so far.

The quake was felt widely across the South Island.