Wild Land

Earthquake activity in the eastern North Island has continued overnight.

Friday 14th January 2011

Earthquake activity in the eastern part of the North Island that commenced on Tuesday has continued with another two or three events overnight.

Two earthquakes of magnitude 4.3 and 3.6 struck Hawke’s Bay on Tuesday, followed by a magnitude 4.6 event at 4:47 on Thursday morning.

Activity continued overnight, but further north, with a magnitude 5.5 earthquake centred 140 km north-east of Te Araroa (160 km north-east of Ruatoria, 240 km north-east of Gisborne) at 1:04 this morning. This event was 70 km deep, and not widely felt, with half-a-dozen reports filed from Gisborne and the Bay of Plenty, according to GeoNet.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports this event as magnitude 5.5 but shallower at 31 km. It estimates the epicentre as 225 km north-east of Gisborne, 310 km east-north-east of Rotorua.

At 5:31 this morning, a magnitude 4.2 earthquake struck 10 km north-east of Gisborne at a depth of 30 km. This event was felt at several locations in the Gisborne district, with 78 reports filed by 10 a.m.

Instruments indicate that another earthquake struck the eastern North Island area at about 8 o’clock this morning, but data for this event is not yet available from either GeoNet or the U.S. Geological Survey.

[Compiled from data provided by the GeoNet project and its sponsors EQC, GNS Science and FRST; and the US Geological Survey and its contributing agencies.]

This entry was posted on Friday, January 14th, 2011 at 10:46 am and is filed under Earthquakes - Observations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.