6.2-Magnitude Quake Hits Off New Zealand Coast—USGS
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Agence France-Presse
07:45 AM February 16th, 2016
WELLINGTON, New Zealand—A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of New Zealand Tuesday, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no reports of damage or injuries.
The shallow quake struck at 8:28 a.m. (1928 GMT Monday), the US Geological Survey said, and was centered 219 kilometers (136 miles) northwest of the Auckland Islands, an archipelago due south of New Zealand’s South Island.
“It was quite far south of the South Island so it’s expected that there wouldn’t be too many people who felt it,” GeoNet Science seismologist John Ristau told the New Zealand Herald.
The quake struck less than a week before the fifth anniversary of a deadly 6.3-magnitude tremor in Christchurch, which killed 185 in one of New Zealand’s deadliest disasters.
On Sunday Christchurch was rattled by a 5.8 quake, which sent goods flying off shelves, but no injuries nor structural damage to buildings were reported.
New Zealand is on the boundary of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, which form part of the so-called “Ring of Fire”, and experiences up to 15,000 tremors a year.