LUCKY is hardly the right word, but had the tsunami that struck the Solomon Islands this week arrived a few hours earlier, many more people might have died.
At 0740 local time on Monday 2 April (2040 GMT on Sunday), an earthquake of magnitude 8.1 occurred in shallow waters 350 kilometres north-west of the islands’ capital, Honiara.
A second tremor of magnitude 6.7 followed 7 minutes later. The quakes triggered a tsunami several metres high that swept away entire villages and is known to have killed at least 12 people as Â鶹´«Ã½ went to press, with many more missing.…
