April 13, 2010 Tsunami: Mangaia Island, Cook Islands
A tsunami of unknown cause began at Mangaia Island, Cook Islands on April 13, 2010. Its effects were recorded at 1 place.
Where the waves reached
The source (white) and every runup with a place, colored by the water height recorded there. A ring is a runup NCEI marks doubtful.
- Under 1 m
- 1 to 3 m
- 3 to 10 m
- 10 to 30 m
- 30 m and more
- Height not recorded
Travel times
How long the first wave took to reach each part of the ocean, one line for each hour up to 24, estimated from the source and the depth of the sea.
The travel times are computed in your browser, which needs JavaScript.
- 1 to 4 hours
- 5 to 6 hours
- 7 to 14 hours
- 15 hours and more
Computed in your browser the way NOAA’s own travel time maps are: the wave travels at the square root of gravity times the depth, over NOAA’s ETOPO1 depths averaged to a 10 arc-minute grid. Checked against NOAA NCEI’s maps for 21 tsunamis over the first 24 hours, these lines fall within 10 minutes of NCEI’s at half the points compared and within 52 minutes at 9 in 10. They give when the first wave could arrive, not how high it is; bays, harbors and island chains finer than the grid can see it later. Not for use in a warning: see tsunami.gov.
The tsunami
- Date
- April 13, 2010
- Source
- Mangaia Island, Cook Islands
- Cause
- Unknown
- Runups recorded
- 1
- Waters
- Ocean
- How certain
- Questionable tsunami
- Source location
- 21.955° S, 157.920° W
The toll
The record gives no deaths, injuries or damage for this tsunami.
What the record says
NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.
Mangaia's Chief of Police, Aerenga Matapo, advised that the wave(s) inundated southern Mangaia one day after a tsunami information bulletin (pacific.2010.04.11.095237) was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre on 11 April 2010. The tsunami information bulletin referred to a 68 km deep, Mw = 7.0 Solomon Islands (11 deg S, 161.1 deg E) earthquake that occurred at 09:53 UTC (11 April 2010, 11:53 p.m. Cook Islands time). The tsunami travel time from the Solomon Islands is around 6 h. In the absence of any other tsunami information and a lack of storm activity in the area at the time, it was thought that the wave that inundated the southern coast of Mangaia on the 13 April 2010 might have been related to the Solomon Islands earthquake (Aerenga Matapo, personal communication, September 2010).
People in the village of Tamarua, close to the south coast, heard a wave(s) strike the southern cliffs early on the morning of the 13 April (Taoi Nooroa, personal communication, September 2010). It is assumed that this was
around dawn because two fishermen, who were already out at sea beyond the fringing reef, were able to see the water
recede prior to inundation, although they did not observe
the subsequent runup (Allan Tuara, personal communication,
September 2010).
Local resident Maki Tangimatiti keeps pigs along the
south coast and uses an old quarry road about 100-150m inland to access the area. When he fed the animals
on the 12 April the surrounding coastal vegetation was
undisturbed, but on the following afternoon he found coral
boulders, uprooted pandanas trees (Pandanus tectorius) and
other vegetation washed inland as far as the road and adjacent to his pig enclosure. No large storms or waves had
struck the coast between 13 April and the time of the survey
in late-September (Maki Tangimatiti, personal communication,
September 2010). A reconnaissance survey along the
same quarry road, but from the southern end of Ivirua, found
that damage to coastal vegetation and deposition of coral debris extended over 4 km east of Site 1 (Taoi Nooroa, personal communication, September 2010).
(above from reference #9427)
Every runup
Nearest the source first. Heights are above sea level at the time; a tide gauge reads half the wave’s full height.
| Where | Country | Km from source | Water height, m | Inland, m | Measured by | First wave, UTC | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tamarua, Mangaia Island | Cook Islands | 0 | Eyewitness observation of water height |
More
Every tsunami in 2010The 2000sTsunamis of Cook IslandsThis day in weather historyAlerts in force
Sources
Tsunami events and runups from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI tsunami event 5443.