Wellingtonians were woken just after three this morning by the largest of four earthquakes to have been felt in the region this morning. The shallow quakes have been scattered across both islands.
The magnitude 4.0 earthquake which struck at 3:12 a.m. on Saturday the 3rd of May 2008 was located 10 km west of Porirua at a depth of 30 km. The event has attracted 394 felt reports on the Geonet website, and was felt strongly in the Wellington suburbs of Brooklyn, Kelburn and Khandallah.
An earthquake located 60 km north-west of Milford Sound at 1:42 a.m. was also felt in Wellington. The magnitude 4.2 quake was 12 km deep. This event was followed by a shallower magnitude 3.6 quake located near Mt. Cook at 4:22 a.m.
A magnitude 3.8 quake struck 20 km south-east of Waipawa at 8:29 this morning. The quake was 33 km deep and was felt in the Wellington suburbs of Karori, Wellington city and Kelburn.
Another earthquake struck under Wellington at 8:52 a.m. Locally, the 20 km deep magnitude 3.0 quake was felt as a sharp jolt.
Snow has fallen on the Rimutaka Hill Road this morning, and Tawa’s lowest temperature for 2008 was recorded at 5:52 a.m., when the thermometer dropped to 3.4 ºC. The cold conditions and light winds would have made it easier for Wellington residents to recognise the more distant earthquake events when they occurred.
[Compiled from data provided by the Geonet project and its sponsors EQC, GNS Science and FRST.]
Phew, I am relieved to know that the short, sharp shock I felt was not a product of my furtile imagination! Strange, but I had been thinking about Earthquakes a few hours earlier! A touch of whimsy p’haps?!