Earthquake activity near Tonga has increased following a quiet period during December.
The latest sequence of events commenced with a very deep magnitude 4.5 earthquake on December 31st, New Zealand Daylight Time. It was followed by a shallow quake of Magnitude 4.5 which struck early on the morning of January 1st.
A pair of magnitude 5.1 events struck at depths of about 120 km early on the morning of January 3rd.
The latest event in the sequence struck just after midnight (NZDT) on January 7th. At only 15 km deep, the shallow magnitude 5.1 event was further south, being centred 100 km ENE of Tonga’s capital, Nuku’Alofa.
[Compiled from data supplied by the US Geological Survey and its contributing agencies.]