Another earthquake struck off-shore near Wanganui this afternoon, the strongest of three recorded in the area since the beginning of the month.
The magnitude 4.2 quake, which struck at 1:25 p.m. on Friday the 17th of October 2008, was located 20 km south-west of Wanganui at a depth of 30 km. The shaking was felt from Te Puke to Wellington, attracting 60 felt reports from the public by mid-afternoon.
The earthquake struck 19 minutes after a shallower magnitude 4.1 quake located 20 km south of Taupo at a depth of 10 km.
Today’s quake near Wanganui is the strongest of three quakes recorded at the same location during October. A magnitude 3.7 quake struck on the morning of October 14th, and a magnitude 3.2 event occurred just after midnight on the 1st.
Only one quake of magnitude 3.6 was reported at the same location as this month’s quakes during September. However, a deeper magnitude 5.2 quake further off-shore 60 km south-west of Wanganui on September 14th was widely felt. More than 1600 reports from the public showed that the quake was felt in both the lower North Island and upper South Island.
During August three quakes with magnitudes between 3.3 and 3.6 struck in an area ten to thirty km off-shore from Wanganui. The area experienced a magnitude 4.1 quake on July 21st and three events of magnitude 3 during June. Four quakes of 3rd magnitude were reported during February 2008.
During 2007, GeoNet reported eleven earthquakes with magnitudes between 2.9 and 4.2 in the same area.
[Compiled from data provided by the GeoNet project and its sponsors EQC, GNS Science and FRST.]