New Zealand’s third earthquake of 5th magnitude in a fortnight struck the north of the South Island this afternoon.
The magnitude 5.0 quake, which struck at 2:35 p.m. on Friday the 5th of September 2008, was located 20 km north-west of Hanmer Springs at a depth of 11 km. The quake is the shallowest of the three recent quakes and, within two hours, had attracted 144 reports from members of the public as far away as Wellington and Christchurch. Strong shaking was reported from Hanmer Springs.
On the afternoon of Monday September 1st, a magnitude 5.8 quake struck 10 km south-east of Turangi. At 80 km the quake was regarded as deep, allowing it to be widely felt.
On Monday the 25th of August, a magnitude 5.9 quake struck 10 km south-west of Hastings at a depth of 30 km. Whilst deeper than today’s event, the quake was nearly 30 times more powerful than the Hanmer Springs quake. By this morning, disaster insurer EQC had received 828 claims totalling $4.4 million from this earthquake.
Other recent quakes of note have included a shallow magnitude 4.7 quake north of Milford Sound on Saturday the 30th and a deeper magnitude 4.5 quake located 30 km south-east of Nelson on the morning of the 4th of September.
[Compiled from data provided by the GeoNet project and its sponsors EQC, GNS Science and FRST.]