A moderately strong, deep earthquake struck the central North Island at lunchtime today.
Wednesday 5th May 2010
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck 40 km east of Turangi (50 km south of Taupo) at 12:46 today. The 60 km-deep quake was felt from Opotiki to Wellington, with most reports being filed from Hawke’s Bay, and some from the Volcanic Plateau.
GeoNet’s instruments show that shaking reached MM6 at Naumai and McNeill Hill inland from Hawke’s Bay. At MM6 the effects are regarded as “slightly damaging” where the earthquake is: “Felt by all. People and animals are alarmed, and many run outside. Walking steadily is difficult. Furniture and appliances may move on smooth surfaces, and objects fall from walls and shelves. Glassware and crockery break. Slight non-structural damage to buildings may occur.”
Reports filed from the public report MM5 shaking (Small objects are shifted or overturned, and pictures knock against the wall. Some glassware and crockery may break, and loosely secured doors may swing open and shut) at Onekawa and Pirimai in Hawke’s Bay. Nearly 200 reports had been filed by the public by 1:30 this afternoon.
[Compiled from data provided by the GeoNet project and its sponsors EQC, GNS Science and FRST.]
Hello,
Would you know why the 5.1 earthquake which struck 40 km east of Turangi on May 5 did not make it onto the http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/ website?
No, I don’t but it has happened in the past. While the USGS has access to instruments in our area which it uses for bigger events, it tends to rely on data from GeoNet for smaller events.
I have noticed that missed events often appear about a week late – perhaps when they do a regular data import from GeoNet – and can be found here:
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/qed/
Just queried this with GeoNet. It could be that the magnitude of the quake detected by USGS instruments put it below their reporting threshold (mag 4.5 for events outside the U.S).
As for data transfer, GeoNet is not aware of any issues but point out that New Zealand events of about this magnitude have been omitted from the USGS site on the odd occasion in the past.