Whakatane residents have gotten off to a shaky start on Tuesday as a quake swarm continues to rock the town.
As many as 25 quakes struck over Monday night and Tuesday morning, with hundreds of people reporting feeling the shocks. The most recent was at 11:17am, GNS Science reports.
- Earthquake swarm rattles Whakaari/White Island
- Another earthquake swarm rattles Whakaari/White Island
- Large seismic event underway off North Island's east coast, triggering earthquake swarm
They're happening just five to 10km north of Whakatane, with the strongest quake so far recorded as magnitude 3.3.
GNS Science duty seismologist Lara Bland says the quakes are very shallow, occurring at a depth of around two to three kilometres.
"If you picture the crust of the earth, you get faults at different depths," Bland told Newshub.
"The difference for us is these shallow ones are felt very strongly."
The quakes are caused by slips in the subduction zone east of Whakatane, where the Pacific Plate is being forced under the Australian Plate.
"As two plates push together at a steady rate, the rocks along the boundary become more and more stressed until eventually something has to give - and an earthquake occurs along a fault," GNS Science says.
"As you bend it with increasing force, the stick becomes more and more deformed until eventually it breaks ('earthquake!') and each of the two pieces of the stick spring back to being more or less straight, but in a new position relative to each other."
Bland says the quakes could ramp up today or they could fall away. They aren't connected to activity at White Island, which continues to have minor volcanic unrest.
Newshub.
