Earthquake swarm activity occurring near Matata has increased during March.
Matata’s latest earthquake swarm began during December 2006 when four tremors with magnitudes between 2.8 and 3.4 were reported near the town.
During January five more earthquakes with magnitudes between 2.8 and 3.1 were reported whilst ten quakes with magnitudes between 2.5 and 3.7 were reported during February.
During the first 15 days of March, fourteen quakes with magnitudes between 1.9 and 3.9 have been reported.
All of the quakes have struck within 10 km of the town at depths between 2 and 8 km.
One unusual aspect of the earthquakes during March is the number that have occurred during the early morning. Five of the events have struck between 1:30 a.m. and 2:39 a.m. but there seems to be no relationship between the quakes and the tides, with two occurring 2½ hours before low water, one two hours after high water and two 20 minutes either side of high water. The other ten quakes also show no particular relationship to the tides in the Bay of Plenty.
The latest events in the swarm were a pair of magnitude 3.6 quakes which struck at 11:36 and 11:38 this morning.
[Compiled from data provided by the Geonet project and its sponsors EQC, GNS Science and FRST.]
It would be good to know what the seismologists are making of this. If it’s classified as ‘normal activity’ or a possible prelude to a techtonic or volcanic event…
I mean, 32 earthquakes in 3 months, virtually all in the same spot (give or take a few km’s) and at the same depths …is a little out of the norm….