QUITO, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Ecuadorian Navy Oceanographic Institute (INOCAR) on Saturday issued a "tsunami warning" to Puerto Ayora, the largest town in central Galapagos Islands, some 1,000 km west from continental Ecuador, due to the eruption of an undersea volcano in Tonga in the South Pacific.
The agency said in a statement that "significant variations in sea level have been recorded in the Academy Bay on Santa Cruz Island," where Puerto Ayora is located.
The tide gauges located on Santa Cruz and Baltra Islands registered "disturbances in the sea level generated by the volcanic eruption," which began to arrive at the shores of the Galapagos Islands at 11:43 a.m. local time (1743 GMT), it said.
The agency said that the status of tsunami observation is ongoing for the rest of the Galapagos Islands as well as for the continental coast of the country, adding "other points of the continental and insular coast could experience similar disturbances." ■
