A burst of earthquake activity struck the southern Kermadec Islands today.
Friday, 26th June 2015
The U.S. Geological Survey reports that five shallow earthquakes have struck the southern Kermadec Islands today. The sequence of quakes began with a magnitude 6.0 event centred 101 km south-east of L’Esperance Rock at 6:46 this morning, New Zealand Standard Time.
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake centred 118 km south-east of L’Esperance Rock struck at 7:14 a.m. A magnitude 5.0 quake followed four minutes later, centred 141 km south-east of L’Esperance Rock.
Another magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck at 10:57 this morning. This event was centred 113 km south-east of L’Esperance Rock. The last event in the swarm so far, was a magntide 4.8 quake centred 115 km south-east of L’Esperance Rock at 2:52 this afternoon.
All of these earthquakes have been 10 km deep according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Today’s quakes occurred in an area 774 to 794 km north-east of Whakatane, 793 to 812 km north-north-east of Gisborne.
A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck the area at 9:01 p.m. on Wednesday 24th. This quake was deeper, at 30 km.
Yesterday (Thursday 25th) a magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck to the east of the North Island at 10:06 a.m. This quake was centred 473 km north-east of Whakatane, 464 km north-east of Gisborne, at a depth of 10 km.