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Since yesterday’s magnitude 7.2 earthquake off the East Cape coast, there have been around 140 smaller aftershocks in the region. But, GNS Science says that’s not a cause for concern.
“After a major earthquake, such as the magnitude 7.2 event in the East Cape, we expect more earthquakes in the region, some of which can be widely felt,” says Dr. Matt Gerstenberger, GNS Scientific Seismologist.
“The most likely scenario during the next 30 days is that there will be more earthquakes of smaller magnitude, less and less frequent.”
However, due to increased activity in the area, there are still greater chances of larger events. People must remain alert to the threat of another major earthquake or tsunami.
Since the magnitude 7.2 East Cape event, more than 140 earthquakes of magnitude 4 or greater have been recorded in the region. The largest earthquake recorded since the main quake was a magnitude 6.1 that occurred just after 1pm today.
“The main message is that everything that is happening now is normal, if anything, it is fewer aftershocks,” says Gerstenberger.
“Even though it is still rotting, we can expect other earthquakes to be felt.”
There were more than 52,000 “felt” reports of yesterday’s magnitude 7.2 earthquake on Geonet’s website.
After the 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck yesterday on the east coast of the North Island, a few hours later there was a 7.4 and 8.1 magnitude earthquake at Kermadecs.
The latest earthquakes triggered tsunami alerts and evacuations in Northland, Gisborne and some Bay of Plenty cities.
Following those events, GeoNet also developed three scenarios of what earthquakes may occur in the next 30 days based on forecasting models.
The most likely scenario is that other smaller earthquakes will decrease in frequency over the next 30 days.
