Another earthquake of fifth magnitude struck the Kermadec Islands this morning.
Wednesday 16th December 2009
A deep magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck the Kermadec Islands at 4:11 this morning, NZDT. The quake was located 25 km south of Raoul Island (240 km north-north-east of L’Esperance Rock) at a depth of 60 km.
On Friday 11th a much deeper magnitude 5.0 quake struck 415 km north-west of Raoul Island at a depth of 680 km.
Other notable activity in the Pacific during the past week includes a magnitude 6.4 event southeast of the Loyalty Islands on the 9th and a magnitude 6.0 earthquake in Papua New Guinea on Monday 14th at 9:54 p.m. New Zealand time. This quake was located 130 km west of Arawa, Bougainville at a depth of 74 km.
On Wednesday 9th a shallow magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge area south-east of New Zealand. A shallow magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck 75 km east of Nuku’Alofa, Tonga early on the morning of Saturday the 12th, New Zealand time. This was followed by a shallow magnitude 5.1 event located 40 km south-east of Hihifo, Tonga just after 10 p.m. that night.
[Compiled from data supplied by the U.S. Geological Survey and its contributing agencies.]