Earthquake and Tsunami Warning

Skenzie,
Thanks for the questions! The weird thing about the recent tsunami warning was that I first heard about it from an aunt in Virginia via an email. I heard about it on the news that night while I was in Auckland, which is in the northwest coast of the north island (so many directions!), which technically would have been out of any southwesterly heading tsunami's path. Since the tragedies of last year's tsunami in parts of Asia, it seems as though scientists are extra sensitive to earthquakes and their potential, especially in the Pacific, where the earthquake struck.

On a side, but pretty interesting note, I learned that New Zealand's mammal population consists of very few native animals and mostly introduced species from neighboring islands. The bat and seal are a few of the only native animals. The reason for this is because when NZ was young (geologically, speaking, that is), any animals that were evolving, or even just getting their feet set on the land, were soon removed by the forces of many volcanoes, which explains it's mountainous topography. On the other hand, Australia is extremely flat, old, and contains some of the rarest species on earth.

Thanks for the question!

Josh