A deep, moderately strong earthquake struck the Bay of Plenty this evening.
Tuesday 19th January 2010
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake located 80 km north of White Island struck at 8:59 this evening. The quake, which was 230 km deep, was centred 110 km north of Te Kaha, 220 km east of Auckland. The quake was felt in eastern Bay of Plenty communities and along the eastern coast of the North Island from Gisborne through Palmerston North to Wellington.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports the earthquake at a similar location (120 km north-north-east of Rotorua, 205 km north-north-west of Gisborne) at a depth of about 230 km, but as magnitude 4.9.
The earthquake follows three shallow earthquakes of fifth magnitude in the southern Kermadec Islands over the past week. Late on Friday the 15th, just before midnight, a pair of earthquakes struck the southern Kermadecs. The magnitude 5.4 and 5.0 quakes were located 155 km east-south-east and 305 km east of L’Esperance Rock at depths of 10 km.
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake which struck at 11:38 on the morning of Monday 18th was located 125 km south-east of L’Esperance Rock (870 km north-east of Auckland) at a depth of 3 km.
[Compiled from data provided by the U.S. Geological Survey and its contributing agencies; and the GeoNet project and its sponsors EQC, GNS Science and FRST.]
We were playing Skipbo and we certainly felt it, seemed to go on for quite some time. We all took a guess at magnitude, I thought upper 4’s Carol 3.5’s Bob 2.5. I had been expecting something for a wee while particularly yesterday as it felt like earthquake weather and the cat was acting oddly.