Magnitude 6.5 Earthquake Strikes Cook Strait, NZ, July 21, 2013

john's picture

A M6.5 earthquake has just struck the Cook Strait, NZ, between North and South Island, about 50 km from Wellington, about 1 hour ago.  No word on damage or injuries.  Depth was shallow about 14.7 km, according to USGS data.  A screenshot from the Open Hazards hazard viewer (www.openhazards.com/viewer) is reproduced here. 

Probabilities computed by the Open Hazards forecast algorithms indicated a relatively low probability of about 6.2% for a M>6 earthquake within 100km of the epicentral location over the next 1 year. 

However, the probability rises rapidly over the next 3 years to 46.2%, which is relatively high. 

The low current probability reflects the fact that a number of large earthquakes have recently occurred in the region. 

These events would normally tend to reduce tectonic forces in the near term.

The rapid rise over the next 3 years reflects the high rate of seismic activity in the area and the prospects for continued significant earthquake activity.

In the last days, the North Island exeperienced several moderate earthquakes of about M5.  Although moderate, these events caused notable shaking and led to thousands of felt reports.

Comments

HarryWilliams's picture

That is really a bad news to hear that people of Cook Strait has badly hit by the earthquake. When I have first read this news from http://best-essay-writing.services/essaywritersworld-com-review/ blog I thought it was an article which has published long back but after checking the date of posted then I came to know that it is present time earthquake.

Risk Alert