A burst of earthquake activity struck the southern Kermadec Islands this afternoon.
Sunday, 25th September 2016
A burst of moderately strong earthquake activity struck near L’Esperance Rock in the southern part of the Kermadec Islands this afternoon.
The earthquake activity began with a magnitude 5.2 quake at 12:27 p.m. New Zealand Daylight Time. A magnitude 4.9 event occurred at 12:43 and a magnitude 5.1 quake struck at 12:52. A magnitude 4.7 quake was recorded at 1:25 p.m. and a magnitude 4.9 quake struck 3 minutes later. Activity ceased until a magnitude 5.9 quake struck at 5:29 this evening.
All of the quakes have been shallow at 10 km, and were centred 118 to 181 km south-east of L’Esperance Rock according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The Kermadec quakes followed two larger quakes in the South Pacific this morning. A magnitude 6.4 quake was recorded 125 km west-north-west of Neiafu, Tonga at a depth of 183 km at 10:07 this morning. A magnitude 6.9 quake centred 99 km north-north-east of Ndoi Island, Fiji at 10:29 a.m. was 596 km deep. Two aftershocks of magnitude 5 followed the deep quake near Fiji.
GeoNet seismograph network 25 September 2016
[click for larger image] The morning quakes left significant traces on GeoNet’s seismograph network. The trace of the quake near Tonga is followed by the trace of the stronger but much deeper trace left by the quake near Fiji. The traces to the right of the plot were left by the first four events near L’Esperance Rock in the Kermadecs.
[Compiled from data supplied by the United States Geological Survey. Seismograph plot supplied by GeoNet.]