A magnitude 5.1 earthquake has rocked New Zealand’s higher North Island on Wednesday morning, with a report of a freezer rolling 30cm throughout the kitchen close to the epicentre.
The quake struck at 5.39am, 5 kilometres south of the Waikato township of Te Aroha, GeoNet says.
It’s been the speak of the city, with folks recounting their shaky wake-up and a present store supervisor questioning if one thing greater is coming.
The shallow quake had a depth of seven kilometres and GeoNet categorised it as “strong” in its preliminary report.
More than 7000 stories of the quake had been registered at 5.53am with the bulk contemplating it gentle or average – and several other aftershocks have been reported, together with a average one at 11.21am.
Te Aroha resident Rowene Potaka awoke when the mattress moved, and stuff fell off the cabinets.
“It gave me a big fright, this is the biggest I’ve felt in Te Aroha. It does make me wonder if we are heading for a big one.”
Potaka manages Addictions present store on the primary road and mentioned merchandise had fallen off cabinets.
“I knew the shop would have been affected, so I have been putting stuff back on shelves this morning.”
Jan Llewell was working in one of many second hand outlets and mentioned a whole lot of dishes, crockery and glasses had fallen off cabinets.
She awoke simply earlier than the earthquake.
“I heard quite a big bang before the shake. There was one last week – it lasted longer but wasn’t as severe as today’s.”
This time the freezer rolled throughout the kitchen ground about 30cm, she mentioned.
“My little dog was shaking and whining, so I brought her to work. She must have known it was coming as she didn’t want to come out of bed.”
Williams Furniture and Hardware retailer proprietor Andrew Hight mentioned the cat jumped up and about when the shaking began.
“It was a good one, it was a rolling shake that went for a while.
While it didn’t scare him, his wife Lisette got a fright.
“I have never seen her get off the bed so early or so rapidly,” Hight said.
The couple’s pool was surging for quite a while after.
Jo Gifford said she was in the shop getting an emergency kit basics for a friend, like a water container and bucket.
Gifford said it felt like being on a boat when the shaking started.
“The home did not transfer, nevertheless it was shaking”
She is used to earthquakes as she grew up in Morrinsville and in the 1970s they had earthquakes all the time.
Matamata-Piako District councillor Sarah-Jane Bourne said the shake was “a bloody good one”.
She was sitting in her car outside the milking shed about 10 kilometres west of Te Aroha when the earthquake occurred.
“The automobile began rocking and rolling, and I believed that was fairly windy, however I appeared exterior, and it was nonetheless.”
She said she hadn’t felt the aftershocks but was aware there had been “a few respectable ones”.
Bourne said the council would be sending people out to check on possible damage to infrastructure, but she didn’t know of any reported damage as of 8am.
She said they had a couple of earthquakes in the last couple of weeks, but they’re generally a rare occurrence.
Matamata-Piako mayor Adrienne Wilcock lives in Matamata and said it wasn’t strong enough to wake family visiting from Christchurch.
A ring-around revealed some people had objects fall off their shelves but, as of 10am, she wasn’t aware of any serious damage.
“There are workers out checking infrastructure and bridges.”
Meanwhile, Shayne Downey in Cambridge said the quake woke him and sent his bed “bouncing”.
“It jogged my memory of a loaded truck passing by, nevertheless it carried on for about 39 seconds,” he said.
There were also reports of it being felt in Leamington.
Six more – smaller – shakes in Te Aroha were reported by Geonet as of 11.40am on Wednesday.
Most were classed as weak, with one moderate, and all were listed as being five kilometres south of the town.
GeoNet expects these to continue over coming hours and days with frequency and size tapering off.
The last strong earthquake in Te Aroha area was in 1972 and was magnitude 4.9, GeoNet said.
It, too, struck five kilometres south of east Waikato town.
Earthquakes are somewhat uncommon in the area, but in the wake of the 3.9 event GNS Science seismologist John Ristau said it’s a good reminder that, in New Zealand, “you possibly can nonetheless get bigger and damaging earthquakes regardless of the place you might be”.
Ristau said that quake did not occur on a known fault line.
“Most earthquakes do not really happen on any recognized fault line or a fault line we’ve got mapped earlier than. This is assuredly the case with this one too.”
A police spokesperson said they were not aware of any damage, but people were calling in to make them aware of the quake.
