Looking at history, Hong Kong need not worry about tsunamis, but…Manila Trench has frightening potential

_{The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami was as high as 50m}

Hong Kong has never been seriously affected by a tsunami in recorded history — any large wave generated in the Pacific is blocked by the Philippines and Taiwan — but the threat remains. The Manila Trench, west of the Philippines, where the Sunda and Philippine Mobile Belt tectonic plates grind against each other, poses a threat to Hong Kong. In the past 100 years large earthquakes of 6.4 to 7.5 magnitude have occurred in the Manila Trench six times.

_{Graphic: Journal of Asian Earth Scientists}

The potential for a dangerous tsunami has been forecasted: a 9.35 magnitude quake in the Trench, the second strongest in recent history, would create a 9.3 metre tsunami that would cause serious flooding in Taiwan and South China. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology says a large quake could create a wave 14.7 metres in height. Villages along the shoreline of the Sai Kung peninsula would be hard hit.

If such an event did occur, the Hong Kong Observatory would issue a Tsunami Information Bulletin. The Observatory is linked to the South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Centre. In 2004, the Boxing Day tsunami with a magnitude of 9.2 centred in the Indian Ocean created a tsunami 50 ft to 160 ft in height. It killed 227,898 people in countries along the Indian Ocean coastline.

*Wikipedia