Buoy off of coast of Chile in tsunami mode

National Data Buoy Center

Okay, I do not keep check of these things. I only check the quakes and buoy maps when they are brought to my attention, so I am hoping that this has a mundane explanation! I found this info on George Ure's Urban Survival site and decided to ask about it here. There are MANY knowledgeable folks on ATS that I am sure can give me a good answer!

He also gives a link to this:Telemetry Data
but it is literally in a foreign language as far as I am concerned!

So please, one of our resident quake and tsunami experts wanna come forward and soothe my worried brow??!!

Several quakes 5.0 and larger. Two off coast of Chile.

earthquake.usgs.gov...
earthquake.usgs.gov...
earthquake.usgs.gov...

Of course that was two and three days ago. USGS not showing any within last day, except for the first link.

reply to post by thehoneycomb

Ahhhh, thanks honeycomb! I checked the quake watch thread, but no one has posted these!

ETA: Oh. I see your edit now. Well, those probably don't have anything to do with this then...... will wait to see some more info!!

reply to post by jennybee35


There apparently was a 6.3 and Mexico on the 21st. I did not know that until I checked the USGS.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

reply to post by jennybee35


Sorry for the confusion. The first link was today.

2012 January 25 16:04:10 UTC

reply to post by thehoneycomb


Well, there are no tsunami watches or warnings, so maybe this is just a one-off occurrence!

reply to post by jennybee35


My apologies, I should have posted the map to show you where the quake was.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

It was the one out there in the pacific.

that would be messed up if chile got rocked again

reply to post by jennybee35


all i see is a normal tidal range for mid ocean

reply to post by ignorant_ape


Is the buoy no longer pulsing, signalling a buoy in tsunami event mode? Lemme check back and see.....

ETA: Still showing as in tsunami event mode!

reply to post by jennybee35


It is still and I am no expert by any means, but I think that the mid ocean ones wouldn't be signaled as easily as tsunamis tend to gain momentum as they get closer to land.

reply to post by jennybee35


Hi. This is a graph of the data from the buoy which I obtained from your link and dumped into Excel.



These are confusing graphs because 1 day is compacted into a very short space and then the current day is spread out. Note the very small 'nick' in the graph at around 10:45 today? This can also be seen on the graphs on this page

There does not appear to be any significant earthquake on the25th in the early hours with the last events for Chile being

Date/Time UTC,Latitude,Longitude,Magnitude,Depth(Km),Location
2012-01-24 16:48:22, -41.234, -85.969, 4.9, 10.0, West Chile Rise
2012-01-24 01:45:27, -34.534, -71.886, 4.6, 34.0, Libertador General Bernardo O’Higgins. Chile
2012-01-23 21:55:14, -36.317, -73.123, 5.0, 20.4, Offshore Bio-Bio. Chile
2012-01-23 17:22:10, -36.343, -73.223, 4.9, 28.1, Offshore Bio-Bio. Chile
2012-01-23 16:04:54, -36.414, -73.015, 6.2, 29.7, Offshore Bio-Bio. Chile
2012-01-22 11:24:09, -28.681, -71.030, 5.0, 58.8, Atacama. Chile
2012-01-19 07:10:21, -31.614, -71.638, 4.8, 43.4, Offshore Coquimbo. Chile

I don't think any of those would have affected this buoy so long after the event and thus with that small nick i have to conclude a data drop out has triggered the alarm. This happens quite frequently.

The interpretation of the webicorder is completely wrong and that wave has nothing to do with magma! It is a malfunction as most of the LISS recorders have been off line. That looks to me like a calibration signal. but equally it is probably an error.

In the light of the higher solar activity at present problems like this are not surprising.

reply to post by PuterMan


Thank you, PuterMan!! I just knew there would be a good explanation from someone who knew what they were talking about. I guess the solar activity has probably caused a lot of off readings in various technical equipment.

Maybe a malfunction or a very large ship passing way too close to it?