A shallow earthquake of magnitude 8.3 has occurred south of Samoa, in the general region where the 1918 Samoa earthquake occurred. A tsunami was generated and measured 1.5m in the Pago Pago tide gage. 111 dead have been reported and the death toll may rise. NOAA’s Center for Tsunami Research has projected a very small sea level variation in Hawaii and the Regional Tsunami Warning has been cancelled by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The graphic shows MOST projections for Hawaii. A tsunami advisory for California, and Oregon was issued and cancelled within minutes based on the NOAA-PMEL projections.
For more information on this event check
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/29/samoa.earthquake/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8281616.stm
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/region/S_Pacific.php
For a description of the 1917 event:
Okal, E.A., J.C. Borrero, and C.E. Synolakis, The earthquake and tsunami of 17 November 1865: evidence for far-field tsunami hazard from Tonga, Geophys. J. Intl., 157, 164-174, 2004.