An earthquake off the North Island’s West Coast was widely felt in central New Zealand at about 1:17 this morning.
The magnitude 5.9 earthquake which was centred in the Tasman Sea 80 km north-east of Collingwood and 180 km deep occurred at 1:15 a.m. according to Geonet.
Two earthquakes occurred in this area during January. On January 16th a magnitude 4.6 earthquake, 160 km deep struck 60 km east of Collingwood. The following day, a shallow magnitude 3.8 earthquake 5 km deep occurred 60 km north of Collingwood.
This morning’s event, whilst noisy, was probably too deep to have caused notable damage. The pronounced rumble was heard for more than 10 seconds in Tawa and attracted the attention of people as far north as Wanganui.