BY: News Peddlers
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| New Zealand Earthquake [Image courtesy of AL Jazeera] |
Hundreds of earthquakes have shook parts of New Zealand in the last five days, with experts warning that the tremors could last for weeks.
Geonet, the country's earthquake monitoring service, reported 922 earthquakes near Kawerau, near the centre of the North Island, as of 9:00 a.m. (2000 GMT) on Wednesday.
The earthquake swarm began on Saturday, with the largest quake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale, according to seismologist John Ristau.
The swarm appeared to be dissipating, but Mr Ristau warned against premature joy.
"We expect an overall decrease in the frequency of these earthquakes over time, but we don't know for sure," Mr Ristau said.
Mr Ristau stated that similar swarms occurred in the Kawerau area in 2018 and 2019, but that swarms with the number of magnitude-4 events as the current one were relatively rare.
"Our experts believe this swarm is caused by active fault movement and is not related to volcanic unrest or geothermal activity," Mr Ristau added.
Some walking tracks had been closed due to rock falls and landslides, according to Kawerau District Mayor Faylene Tunui.
"We've been hearing reports of minor damage in houses, primarily from the shaking and dislodging of items from shelves and cupboards," said the mayor. "However, the full extent of the damage is unknown, and the tremors appear to be continuing."
(dpa/NAN)