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🇳🇿 New Zealand /Disasters & Emergencies

Magnitude 4.9 earthquake strikes northwest of Paraparaumu

From NZ Herald · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck northwest of Paraparaumu in New Zealand’s lower North Island at 6:34 a.m.
  • GeoNet classified the shaking as moderate, while nearly 15,000 people reported feeling the quake within 10 minutes.
  • The tremor followed two magnitude 5.5 and 5.6 earthquakes near Milford Sound earlier in the week.

A magnitude 4.9 earthquake rattled New Zealand’s lower North Island on Thursday morning, with nearly 15,000 people reporting that they felt the shaking within 10 minutes.

The quake struck at 6:34 a.m. about 30 kilometres northwest of Paraparaumu. GeoNet recorded it at a depth of 29 kilometres and classified the shaking as moderate. Four people reported extreme shaking, while 16 described the movement as severe.

The earthquake followed a series of sizeable tremors around the country this week. On Wednesday evening, two moderate earthquakes struck near Milford Sound. The first had a magnitude of 5.5 and hit about 40 kilometres northeast of Milford Sound at 6:13 p.m. Less than an hour later, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck about 35 kilometres northeast of the same area.

Several smaller earthquakes were recorded near Milford Sound afterward.

About this summary

Originally published by NZ Herald in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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