The fifth earthquake to strike near the Kermadec Islands since Wednesday was recorded this morning.
The magnitude 5.0 quake, which struck at 3:59 a.m. on Saturday 7th July 2007 NZST, was located 310 km south of L’Esperance Rock at a depth of 10 km. The last two Kermadec quakes have occurred at intervals of just over 23 hours so, if the trend continues, the next event should occur just after 3 a.m. tomorrow.
Elsewhere in the western South Pacific, earthquakes have been recorded near Fiji, the Santa Cruz Islands and Samoa during the past week. The six events in the Fiji region have ranged between magnitude 4.1 and 4.9 with most at very great depths of 520 to 610 km.
The Santa Cruz Islands event of Wednesday morning was magnitude 5.2 at a depth of 135 km.
The quake near Samoa is the most recent event. The magnitude 5.8 quake struck 595 km NNE of Nuku’Alofa, Tonga, at 5:41 this morning in an area between the Tongan and Samoan Islands. The 45 km-deep quake was located in the Tonga microplate to the west of the subduction interface with the Pacific Plate.
[Compiled from data supplied by the US Geological Survey and its contributing agencies.]