Residents alarmed: New Zealand shaken by dozens of earthquakes in 24 hour period

July 19, 2013 – WELLINGTON, NZ – A 4.3 quake hit the east coast of New Zealand tonight, following a 4.5 magnitude quake in central New Zealand this afternoon, and a 5.7 earthquake that rattled people in Wellington and Blenheim this morning. Geonet reported tonight’s quake was 20 km east of Te Araroa, a settlement on the east coast of the north island, near the southern edge of the Bay of Plenty. The quake was 62 km deep and hit at 11.42pm. GeoNet reported this afternoon’s was of a “strong” intensity, 35 km east of Seddon, at a depth of 15 km. The quake hit at 3.21pm. The first quake struck at 9.06 am and was centered 30km east of Seddon, south of Blenheim, at a depth of 8 km. Rated as severe, it turned Wellington office workers white-knuckled as it swayed high-rises in the capital, with buildings also being rocked in Blenheim. The shallow tremor was felt as far away as Christchurch and New Plymouth. In Wellington it was felt as one jolt, gradually picking up in intensity, while those in Blenheim felt two shakes. GeoNet said it received more than 6000 reports after the jolt. It said the fact it struck off the South Island spared the region from its full force, though there were a few reports that it had a damaging intensity. Though it had knocked goods off shelves in Blenheim it was much too small to cause a tsunami, GeoNet said. An offshore earthquake needed to be at least magnitude 7.5 for a tsunami to be considered possible. The quake was preceded by a magnitude-2.9 “foreshock” in the same location 6 minutes before the main shock. An Earthqake Commission spokeswoman said 14 claims had been received following the first quake, but she expected more once people got home from work. By 11am there had been 17 aftershocks in the region, the largest a magnitude 3.7, 30km east of Seddon. Aftershocks were likely to continue for the next 24 hours. Early analysis had the fault movement as “reverse faulting,” meaning each side of the fault was being compressed. In Marlborough, Lake Grassmere farmer Peter Davison said he had never seen his house buck and shake so much. “It was like being on a bloody rollercoaster,” he said. He was looking out the window of his Marfells Beach Rd home when it hit. It was worse than the Boxing Day quake in 2010, which he had been in Christchurch for, he said. “I’ve never felt anything like it,” he said. His fishing rods had fallen and lay scattered around his library and pictures were askew on the walls. “It’s a wooden house and I’ve never seen the walls move like this,” he said. –Stuff NZ