Both of the main islands of New Zealand have experienced earthquakes this morning.
Thursday 18th December 2008
Earthquakes have struck the Canterbury, Bay of Plenty and central North Island areas of New Zealand this morning.
The burst of activity commenced with a shallow magnitude 4.9 earthquake near the spa town of Hanmer Springs at 8:55 a.m. The 12 km-deep quake was located 10 km north of the town and was felt locally, at several West Coast towns and as far south as Christchurch. Slight damage has been reported close to the epicentre at Hanmer Springs according to reports lodged with the GeoNet website.
An aftershock of magnitude 4.1 within 5 km of Hanmer Springs at a depth of 10 km was recorded at 9:12 a.m. This was felt locally and at several locations in the Canterbury area.
At 9:33 a.m. a deep magnitude 5.8 quake struck offshore in the Bay of Plenty. The quake, which was located 80 km north-east of White Island volcano at a depth of 130 km, was felt at several locations in the Bay of Plenty and Hawke’s Bay, and in Wellington.
An earthquake located 50 km east of Taupo (20 km south of Murupara) struck at 10:18 a.m. The shaking from the 60 km-deep magnitude 4.7 quake was felt in Bay of Plenty coastal communities and in Hawke’s Bay.
The activity follows quakes of magnitude 3 and 4 in the swarm near Matata yesterday and a shallow magnitude 5.1 event located 215 km east of L’Esperance Rock in the Kermadec Islands at 9:30 last night.
[Compiled from data provided by the GeoNet project and its sponsors EQC, GNS Science and FRST; and the U.S. Geological Survey and its contributing agencies.]