A pair of moderately strong earthquakes struck the southern Kermadec Islands just before midnight last night.
Saturday 16th January 2010
A pair of moderately strong, shallow earthquakes of fifth magnitude struck the southern part of the Kermadec Islands just before midnight, New Zealand time.
At 11:14 p.m. Friday night, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, a magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck 155 km east-south-east of L’Esperance Rock in the southern Kermadecs (900 km north-east of Auckland) at a depth of 10 km. Twenty-four minutes later, at 11:38 p.m., a magnitude 5.0 earthquake located 305 km east of L’Esperance Rock (1035 km east-north-east of Auckland) struck at a depth of 10 km.
The Geoscience Australia website reports both events at magnitude 5.3, but is still calculating a depth for the shallow events.
[Compiled from data supplied by the U.S. Geological Survey and Geoscience Australia and their contributing agencies.]