Three light earthquakes have struck the southern part of the North Island during the past two days
Saturday 20th November 2010
Last night’s earthquake centred near Upper Hutt was the second Hutt valley event and the second magnitude four quake to have struck the southern part of the North Island in two days.
The 8:31 p.m. magnitude 4.2 quake was centred within 5 km of Upper Hutt (40 km north-east of Wellington) at a depth of 30 km. The quake was felt throughout the Wellington, Manawatu and Wairarapa regions, attracting more than 700 reports from the public.
On Thursday afternoon a magnitude 3.4 earthquake struck the same area. The 2:41 p.m. quake was centred 10 km north-east of Upper Hutt at a depth of 30 km. This event was felt in the Wellington and Horowhenua regions.
An early morning quake on Friday woke many residents of the southern part of the North Island. The magnitude 4.2 earthquake, which struck at 1:15 a.m., was centred 10 km south-east of Levin (90 km north-east of Wellington) at a depth of 40 km. The quake was felt from Golden Bay in the South Island to Wanganui, attracting nearly 300 reports from the public, mainly from Manawatu, Horowhenua, Kapiti, Wellington, and Wairarapa.
[Compiled from data provided by the GeoNet project and its sponsors EQC, GNS Science and FRST.]