5.9 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks New Zealand; Residents & Shoppers Panic

New Zealand was shaken by a powerful 5.9-magnitude earthquake at 3:36 p.m. local time on Friday, April 24, sending panic among residents and shoppers, although no casualties or major damage have been reported, according to seismologists. Geologists from the United States said the tremor’s epicentre was located at approximately 66 kilometres from South Island town of Kaikoura with depth measured at 55 kilometres. It lasted for 20 seconds.

GeoNet, a local geological hazard monitoring system, recorded the vibration’s intensity at 6.3, which was felt throughout New Zealand. But despite its power, the earthquake “was so deep” to cause any damage, albeit there were reports about widespread disruption on both mobile and landline networks. Its rail services on rural and urban areas, too, were interrupted as management had to ensure the train tracks did not sustain any damage.

TVNZ reports the jolt, which struck Seddon, was New Zealand’s second tremor as of Friday. The first quake was recorded earlier, measuring 4.4 intensity and with depth at about 23 kilometres. Both earthquake shook the same area and prompted people inside the council building to vacate the premises as precaution. There was no damage reported, however.

James Hills, Kaikoura’s Mitre 10 hardware store manager, said the earthquake displaced some items from their shelves and caused his customers to flee the building. “There’s been a little bit of damage, certainly not heaps, but yeah, there’s a lot of stuff fallen over,” Hills was quoted by NDTV.

Caleb McNabb, a local resident, went to Twitter and posted that “Buildings swayed in Kaikoura’s main street.” Another Twitter account owner, Mandy Simpson from Wellington, tweeted “that was a long, horrid shake.”

The Borneo Post reports there were three aftershocks — measuring between 3.5 and 3.8 in magnitude — felt. The area in Seddon had already been struck twice by tremor in July and August in 2013. Both earthquakes had an intensity of 6.5 magnitude. Kevin Fenaughty, data manager of GeoNet, said it was not clear whether “there was a direct relationship.” He elaborated that it cannot be ascertained that “it has not been triggered by stresses from all those quakes over time.”

In February 2011, 185 people died from an earthquake that rocked South Island city of Christchurch. New Zealand sits on a boundary forming the “Ring of Fire” and has 15,000 earthquakes annually.

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