Kermadec Earthquakes

A burst of moderately strong undersea earthquake activity struck the Kermadec Islands yesterday.

Friday, 15th July 2016

Six moderately-strong earthquakes struck north of the Kermadec Islands Yesterday. The burst of activity started just before midnight Wednesday when a magnitude 5.7 quake struck 193 km north-east of Raoul Island at a depth of 17 kilometres.

GeoNet's Raoul Island seismograph

GeoNet’s Raoul Island seismograph


[click for larger image] GeoNet’s seismograph at Raoul Island shows the burst of earthquake activity that occurred overnight Wednesday-Thursday.

The strongest earthquake of the sequence, a magnitude 6.3 event, struck 14 minutes later at 11 minutes after midnight New Zealand Standard Time on July 14th. This quake was centred 201 km north-east of Raoul Island at a depth of 12 km.

At 19 minutes after midnight a magnitude 5.7 earthquake was recorded 181 km north-east of Raoul at a depth of 10 km. A magnitude 5.1 quake centred 277 km east-north-east of Raoul Island at a depth of 10 km was recorded at 58 minutes after midnight.

At 1:04 a.m. a magnitude 5.7 quake struck 200 km north-east of Raoul at a depth of 10 km. A magnitude 5.0 event centred 187 km north-east of Raoul Island at a depth of 10 km was recorded at 1:17 a.m.

The final earthquake of the sequence was a magnitude 5.0 event centred 204 km north-east of Raoul Island at a depth of 38 km at 2:24 a.m.

[ Compiled from data supplied by the United States Geological Survey. Graphic courtesy of GeoNet. ]

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