A strong magnitude 6.3 earthquake has hit 40 kilometers off the New Zealand town of Kaikoura, GeoNet reported. Witnesses described feeling tremors all across central regions of the country.
BREAKING: A magnitude 6.3 earthquake has struck inland from
Kaikoura. Did you feel it? #eqnz pic.twitter.com/quREdLyr0x
— Stuff.co.nz News (@NZStuff) April
24, 2015
The earthquake was clearly felt in the cities of Wellington and
Christchurch.
The quake centered in Nelson region at the depth of 80
kilometers, according to GeoNet. The US Geological Survey,
meanwhile, reported a lower magnitude of 5.9 at the epicenter.
That was a long Earthquake! 6.3, 40km north west of kaikoura
76km deep. I picked up my daughter so fast and ran for the
doorway #earthquake
— Anna Rae Taunton (@AnnaRaeTaunton) April
24, 2015
There were no immediate reports of any major damage caused by the
quake; however, local public transport services were temporarily
halted.
started as a rolling one, then stop, then got violent. hope all
is okay. #eqnz
— Guy Smiley (@GuySmiley11) April
24, 2015
The power of the earthquake’s tremors knocked food items from
their shelves in the stores and set off alarms.
Locals reported that the temblor lasted longer than usual,
forcing houses to creak, which caused some people to panic.
A 6.3 quake 40km for Kaikoura has been felt widely across
central NZ. http://t.co/jW46qMOdqQ pic.twitter.com/fWJLxKVFo1
— Dominion Post (@DomPost) April
24, 2015
GNS Science spokeswoman Caroline Little said the quake was
labelled as “strong.”
“We’ve classed it as a strong quake so a small amount of
structural damage, but more likely things falling off shelves and
that sort of thing,” she said.
Never forget the bottles that fell from the shelves this day as
casualties of the earthquake. #eqnz
— Simon Wong (@wimon_song) April
24, 2015
Little warned that some aftershocks are to be expected.
“The general rule of thumb with aftershocks is they’ll be up
to one magnitude less than the main shock, so we might have some
fives and fours and threes as well,” she said.
The tremor was felt across central New Zealand and
Wellingtonioans said it was really big and lasted for a long
time. http://t.co/bYGvWx7xm9
— Morgan Sassworth (@morganeleanor) April
24, 2015
Kaikoura’s store manager, James Hills, described the chaos in his
shop after the quake hit.
“Fair bit of panic – get out of the shop, everything was
falling off the shelves. There’s been a little bit of damage,
certainly not heaps, but yeah, there’s a lot of stuff fallen
over.”
“Well, initially, we were up on the second floor and felt a
slight movement, we thought, ‘that’s okay, that’s it,’ so we just
took our seats, then it came on – to me, it was a rolling motion,
quite firm, quite solid,” Kaikoura’s mayor, Winston Gray,
told Radio New Zealand News, adding that there were some reports
of minor damage throughout the city.