The Tsunami .... that didnt happen !

What a strange day. It was perfect autumn weather - warm with a cloudless blue sky - and yet the beaches of eastern Australia were deserted !
This morning an earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale rocked the sea near the Solomon Islands. An earthquake of that magnitude is huge - and many people remembered the graphic scenes when a Tsunami devastated Indonesia and surrounding countries on Boxing day, 2004 - killing hundreds of thousands of people.
Australia went on Tsunami alert. Beaches were closed. People near the water were advised to move to higher ground. The ferries on Sydney harbour stopped and were replaced by buses - but nothing happened. Not all earthquakes trigger a Tsunami and while this one killed people in the Solomon Islands it produced no killer waves.
Perhaps this was a timely warning - and a dry run for a future event. Our known history for this country is a little over two hundred years and scientists have detected foreshore damage that indicates Australia has been hit by huge Tsunamis in the past. It seems to be a matter of " when " - not " if " until the next one arrives.
Australia is situated some distance from " the ring of fire " which runs through New Zealand, up through New Guinea and then on across Asia. We have no active volcanoes but such monsters are common in the Pacific - and volcanoes have a habit of producing the sort of explosions that trigger Tsunamis.
As a result of the Boxing day, 2004 disaster warning equipment is being installed in the Indian ocean to supplement similar devices in the Pacific. Hopefully, when that inevitable Tsunami of the future strikes we should have sufficient warning to clear the beaches and low lying ground that will be inundated. The important thing is having our citizens treat a Tsunami warning seriously. If nothing else, those TV news pictures from 2004 should ensure that happens !