A moderately strong, deep earthquake struck near Mt Taranaki early this morning.
The earthquake, which clearly showed on Geonet’s seismometers, was probably too deep to have been felt.
The magnitude 5.1 earthquake, which was located about 50 km east of Mt Taranaki, struck at 2:08 this morning. With an estimated depth of 256 km, it is unlikely that the rupture was felt.
Of the six earthquake events recorded so far today, two have been shallow enough to have been felt. A magnitude 4.8 earthquake was recorded at a depth of of 40 km, in the Pacific Ocean 40 km south-east of Porangahau at 12:45 p.m. A nearby magnitude 4.0 on-shore event was recorded at a depth of 30 km six hours later. This earthquake, which struck at 6:59 p.m., was located 20 km north-west of Castlepoint and was felt in Masterton, Pahiatua and Feilding.
[Compiled from data supplied by Geonet and its contributing agencies.]