One Week On: East Cape and Kermadec Earthquakes – 12/03/2021 livenews.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from livenews.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A tsunami evacuation sign shows the way to safety.
OPINION: At 2.27am on Friday, March 5, thousands of people were shaken awake when a magnitude 7.3 earthquake happened off the East Cape. The National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) issued a tsunami warning, telling people near the coast, from Cape Runaway to Tolaga Bay, to immediately move to higher ground or further inland. We all know what happened next. A few hours later another two earthquakes, of magnitudes 7.4 and 8.1, struck near the Kermadec Islands. Soon many people’s phones let out the ear-shattering screech that heralds an important Nema announcement. We were warned that coastal areas could expect strong and unusual currents. We were also told there was the possibility of unpredictable surges at the shore reaching 1 to 3 metres. People near the coast from the Bay of Islands to Whangārei, from Matata to Tolaga Bay, and Great Barrier Island were advised to evacuate immediately.
MetService, GNS Science visit Raoul Island after March earthquakes
14 Mar, 2021 04:42 AM
3 minutes to read
New Zealand s reaction to the 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck near Te Araroa in North Island of New Zealand; land and marine tsunami warnings lifted. Video / Supplied
New Zealand s reaction to the 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck near Te Araroa in North Island of New Zealand; land and marine tsunami warnings lifted. Video / Supplied
NZ Herald
MetService and GNS Science staff have returned to Raoul Island for the first time since the 8.1 magnitude earthquake near the Kermadec Islands that rattled many New Zealanders in the early hours of March 5.
Covid cancellations keep scientists away from Kermadec Islands
Four Otago students were meant to be on a boat offshore of the Kermadec Islands on the morning of March 5. This would have placed them near the epicentre of the M7.4 and M8.1 quakes that triggered Tsunami warnings in the North Island.
In a weird twist of fate, a last-minute Covid induced cancellation prevented the HMNZS Canterbury from setting sail to the Kermadec Islands with the 2021 BLAKE expedition. Lucy Davidson was one of the students meant to be on board the ship.
“I was totally gutted when I found out that the trip was cancelled,” said Lucy, “but thank goodness we weren’t there.”
New Zealand sees exotic earthquake sequence Posted on
Shinji Toda, Ph.D., IRIDeS, Tohoku University
Citation: Gonzalez-Huizar, H., Toda, S., 2021, New Zealand sees exotic earthquake sequence, Temblor, http://doi.org/10.32858/temblor.160
On March 4, 2021, a series of three large earthquakes struck within six hours of one another in the South Pacific. The earthquakes struck along 560 miles (900 kilometers) of the Kermadec trench, where the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates converge. The first shock a magnitude-7.3 struck at 2:27 am local time in the southern part of the trench, just off the northeastern coast of New Zealand’s North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui). The resulting pattern of seismic waves suggests that it was a complex rupture along multiple adjacent faults.