Tuesday 1 January 2013

Earthquake in Taranaki, New Zealand


Three earthquakes rock Taranaki
The first, a severe, magnitude 5 earthquake struck at 3.11am


1 January, 2014

A series of three earthquakes rocked Taranaki early this morning.

The first, a severe, magnitude 5 earthquake struck at 3.11am and was centred 5km deep and 30 km north-west of Opunake, GeoNet reported.

A smaller, magnitude 3.2 quake, centred 5km and 20 km north-west of Opunake, then hit at 3:27am.

The third, a magnitude 4.3 quake centred 6km deep and 25 km north-west of Opunake, hit at 3.42am.

On their twitter page the Taranaki Civil Defence said there was no tsunami warning and it was unlikely the event would be severe enough to generate one.

"If there are aftershocks, remember to Drop, Cover, Hold," they tweeted.

"Well, that was a short, sharp welcome to the New Year! No reports of damage so far," they said.

People throughout Taranaki reported being woken up by the quakes and turned to twitter to share their account.

"All three earthquakes managed to wake me up when alarm clocks won't, can't sleep now due to fear of fourth," Sean Kelly said on twitter.

"Was about to go to bed and I heard the first one come. It shook the house from side to side and lasted about 30 seconds," William Johnston said.

In July 2012 a magnitude 7.0 quake centred 230km deep and 60km south of Opunake, was the largest to strike the Taranaki Bight area for 100-120 years.



(Major) Earthquakes list December 31, 2012



Relatively strong and shallow earthquake near coast of New Zealand’s North Island
 
A relatively strong earthquake NOT reported ny the international agencies which occurred at 03:11 on New Years night. Shallow and close to one of the bigger cities in New Zealand, Plymouth.

Also very close to Mount Egmont (also called Mount Taranaki), an active volcano, but there are NO signs that this earthquake has any volcanic link.

The Magnitude of the earthquake was reported as a M5 at a depth of 5 km.
Geonet New Zealand has labelled the intensity as “severe” although NO report of damage was received by the authorities so far.

The mainshock was followed by a number of aftershocks.



Some more information of the volcanic activity of Mount Taranaki (we like the Maori word) :

The most recent volcanic activity was the production of a lava dome in the crater and its collapse down the side of the mountain in the 1850s or 1860s. Between 1755 and 1800, an eruption sent a pyroclastic flow down the mountain’s northeast flanks,and a moderate ash eruption occurred about 1755, of the size of Ruapehu’s activity in 1995/1996. The last major eruption occurred around 1655. (source Wikipedia)

 
Moderate earthquake at intermediate depth in central Peru

Based on an increasing number of visitors joining us from Peru, we believe that an earthquake was felt. When you are one of the people who experienced this earthquake, please fill in the form behind “I Felt A (not Listed) Earthquake”. Thank you.

Update 08:57 UTC: No seismological data yet, but the first message from Peru indicates Moderate to strong shaking in Lima for a longer time than usually felt.

Update 08:59 UTC: Based on the number of visitors we experience at the moment and the time of the night, we can confirm that this earthquake is being felt as exceptional.

Update 09:00 UTC : No doubt that there was some shaking in Lima (all traffic we see in the site originates from the greater Lima area).

Update 09:01 UTC : First data that comes in is reporting a Magnitude of 4.4 at a depth of 53 km. Harmless but enough to wake up a lot of people.

Update 09:06 UTC : The epicenter is (based on the preliminary data) located in the Huaura district close to the city of Huacho where almost everybody left their houses. People indicate in this district that the earthquake felt really strong.

Update 09:10 UTC : We can conclude that this earthquake was frightening but luckily harmless (providing that the current earthquake data are correct).

Update 09:13 UTC : Data from USGS are now in and indicate a M4.9  at a depth of 70 km

Update 09:22 UTC : IGP Peru reports a Ml of 4.7 at a depth of 53 km. MMI III to IV at Huacho, III in Lima. Epicenter at 49 km from Huacho. We will add the IGP data in our listing below.









SRC
Location
UTC Date/time
M
D
INFORMATION
ER
I Felt A (not Listed) Strong Earthquake
Dec 31 23:59 PM
4.6
0.1
EMSC
Balleny Islands Region
Dec 31 20:02 PM
5.2
10.0
USGS
Balleny Islands Region
Dec 31 20:02 PM
5.2
10.0
USGS
Kepulauan Barat Daya, Indonesia
Dec 31 14:15 PM
4.7
82.2
EMSC
Kepulauan Barat Daya, Indonesia
Dec 31 14:15 PM
4.7
100.0
GEOFON
Banda Sea
Dec 31 14:15 PM
4.7
10.0
GEONET
Opunake
Dec 31 14:11 PM
5.0
5.0
EMSC
Off East Coast Of Honshu, Japan
Dec 31 09:36 AM
4.9
20.0
USGS
Off The East Coast Of Honshu, Japan
Dec 31 09:36 AM
4.8
34.3
GEOFON
Off East Coast Of Honshu, Japan
Dec 31 09:35 AM
4.8
10.0
GEOFON
South Indian Ocean
Dec 31 08:50 AM
4.9
10.0
EMSC
South Indian Ocean
Dec 31 08:50 AM
5.1
10.0
USGS
South Indian Ocean
Dec 31 08:50 AM
5.0
9.8
USGS
Near The Coast Of Central Peru
Dec 31 08:46 AM
4.9
69.8
EMSC
Near Coast Of Central Peru
Dec 31 08:46 AM
4.6
60.0
USGS
Flores Sea
Dec 31 06:01 AM
4.6
594.4
GEOFON
Northern Mid Atlantic Ridge
Dec 31 01:45 AM
5.1
10.0
EMSC
Northern Mid-atlantic Ridge
Dec 31 01:45 AM
4.6
10.0
USGS
Northern Mid-atlantic Ridge
Dec 31 01:45 AM
4.7
10.1
EMSC
Guatemala
Dec 31 01:15 AM
4.9
112.0
GEOFON
Mexico-guatemala Border Region
Dec 31 01:15 AM
5.0
142.0
USGS
Chiapas, Mexico
Dec 31 01:15 AM
5.0
113.9




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