New Zealand’s 7.0 earthquake was strongest to strike the region in 119 years

[Retired Tech]

New Zealand’s 7.0 earthquake was strongest to strike the region in 119
years
Posted on July 4, 2012 by The Extinction Protocol
July 4, 2012 – NEW ZEALAND – Last night’s magnitude 7.0 earthquake in
the South Taranaki Bight is the largest to strike the region in more
than 100 years, GNS Science says. The quake struck at 10.36pm, 60km
south-west of Opunake in Taranaki, at a depth of 230km. It was felt
strongly around the west coast of the lower North Island, and was
widely felt from the Bay of Plenty to Canterbury. No tsunami was
generated by the quake. Waiouru resident Adrienne Murphy told the
Herald it was the “biggest shake we have felt in years.” Residents in
Wellington reported being startled by shakes, which lasted for about
15 seconds. Some said the shakes were strong enough to topple
household appliances, but the central Fire Service communications
centre said it had received no reports of earthquake-related damage.
Wellington resident Sam Rowe said he felt the walls of his house
shaking. The South Taranaki Bight is no stranger to large earthquakes;
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck on March 15, 2005, at a depth of
150km. Seismologist Lara Bland said the quake was the largest to
strike the South Taranaki Bight in about 119 years. In 1893 a quake
struck measuring about magnitude 7.2. Only one aftershock has been
recorded following the quake – a magnitude 4.6 aftershock nine minutes
later – although GNS Science will be doing a background check today to
see if there were others. “But we’re not expecting a very rich
aftershock sequence,” Ms Bland said. GNS Science said the quake was
typical to other deep North Island tremors, in that the strongest
shaking occurred to the east of the epicenter, rather than directly
above it. “To an extent, an earthquake that large will often be felt
reasonably widely anyway, but because of the subduction zone and where
it occurred, the energy has travelled very efficiently back up the
dipping plate that it has occurred on so it has come to the surface in
a very efficient path,” Ms Bland said. Large earthquakes are not
unusual in New Zealand, with a quake larger than magnitude 7 occurring
on average every three years. –NZ Herald