Hawke’s Bay earthquakes: ‘Severe’ earthquake zone hit and felt widely across the North Island

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A series of powerful earthquakes rocked the North Island this morning, causing damage in Hawke’s Bay. photo / niwa

A series of powerful earthquakes rocked the North Island this morning, causing damage in Hawke’s Bay. The civil defense confirmed that there is no danger of a tsunami.

The first quake, with a magnitude of 5.9, occurred at 10.16 a.m. and its epicenter was in Borengahaw in Hawke’s Bay, Geonet said. The quake was at a depth of 24 kilometers.

A second earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 struck three minutes later in the same area at a depth of 17 kilometers. Both earthquakes were considered severe.

At 10.21 am, a third earthquake hit the same area, with a magnitude of 3.9. The third quake occurred at a depth of less than 14 km and was centered 10 km west of Birangau.

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This was followed by a series of aftershocks, with a total of 20 earthquakes hitting the area in the hour following the initial tremor.

The New Zealand Civil Defense confirmed that the quakes did not cause a dangerous tsunami across the east coast.

A Fire and Emergency Center spokesperson said the team had not responded to any earthquake-related incidents, while a police spokesperson said they had not been alerted to anything.

Everything is damaged. everything on earth

A Birangahao resident said the area had been hit by “the biggest earthquake”.

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“S***s are flying all over the place from cupboards and shelves, and the second you just started home swaying uncontrollably.”

“We are getting in our car, it is very dangerous at home that the tremors continue,” a resident of Birangau said on Facebook.

An employee at the Duke Hotel in Pōrangahau was in the upstairs office when the entire building shook from side to side.

“Everything is damaged. Everything is on the ground.”

“We’re just on the phones right now trying to figure out if we have to evacuate, and the questions about the tsunami are definitely going up.”

There was heavy shaking at Burangao this morning with M5.7 closely followed by M5.3. Our team is still looking into this, so volume/locations are currently preliminary. We will update the information as soon as possible. #eqnz pic.twitter.com/aZVxRxNSFu

— GeoNet (@geonet) April 25, 2023

It was an extreme jolt, said Robert Hockamaw, whose father owns the Duke Hotel in Pōrangahau.

“It was so intense. I really don’t know how to describe it. It was the biggest earthquake I’ve ever felt in my life.”

He said the first quake lasted about 30 seconds, followed by aftershocks that lasted 90 seconds.

The staff was assessing the damage.

“Single bottles were thrown into the cooler. The bottles were shattered and some fell.”

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He said the quake was “a bit worrying” because of the town’s proximity to the coast, about 1.3 kilometers away, and the possibility of a tsunami.

One Napier resident reported that the spinning sensation was so long it made them feel nauseous.

Bloody hell! They just keep coming #eqnz pic.twitter.com/0Gd11BYwnB

— gives (@edufk) April 25, 2023

The two back-to-back tremors were very scary, said Peggy Scott, who lives after the tallest place in the world just minutes from Berangahao.

We definitely felt that. We live in a rural area of ​​Wimbledon Road and things started falling off the shelves, made a bit of a mess, we just cleaned it up.

We packed bags with food and water in case we had to go up the hill. My parents who are in the village said that there is chaos there too.

“We don’t feel like it’s over. Everyone is just getting ready.”

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Angela McGregor, a Bottle-O worker at Mangaterra in Dannevirke, told Hawke’s Bay today that lights were flickering inside the store but luckily nothing was broken or fell off the shelves.

She said it passed a few minutes and stopped at one point before starting again.

‘Please don’t be so big,’ I thought.

Pōrangahau School posted on its Facebook page that it is “following protocol” and leaving for the auditorium after this morning’s earthquakes.

“If you want to pick up the tariki from the hall, come if it is safe to do so. They have bags with them and we take Kai.”

A Buquitoheno Bell resident who lives near the beach told the Herald that her children who attend Purangahaw School have been evacuated to the village hall.

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It was a deep, deep shaking. We are still waiting for any official communication. I haven’t heard any sirens or alerts from the civil defense yet.

We don’t know what to do. A member of my family will pick up the children from the village hall as they were evacuated from the school.”

Items flying off the shelves

Alex Walker, the mayor of central Hawke’s Bay, said the Burengau region was already hit hard by Hurricane Gabriel and people were “really shaken.”

“This morning it rocked them even more,” she told NZME.

Property shook, belongings [have been] Shaken … people are worried.”

A Beach Street, Beranghao resident told the Herald that the tremor was intense and frightening.

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“We had a couple of shakes, a lot of rolling. Crockery, glassware and food items fell off the shelves, but we cleaned it up.

“The school has been evacuated but has been told there is no danger of a tsunami, so students and staff are coming back.

“I live right on the beach and can’t see rougher seas than is normal.”

Napier resident Michelle Fox told the Herald that her husband and son, who were at their home on Latham Street, described the tremor as “a bouncing up and down and then a colossal jolt”.

“Kennedy is in contact with Mariwa School and is preparing to evacuate if the matter is involved.”

It was felt by at least 50,000 people

The shaking was widely felt across the lower North Island with people in Wellington reporting a rolling motion.

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In Napier, office staff hid under desks while the quake lasted for about a minute.

According to GeoNet, about 50,000 people across the country have registered feeling the four quakes.

“I have never felt such massive tremors,” a Burangao resident wrote online.

“I thought our old house was going to fall, and they are still falling.”

That was a good dizzy spell thanks to the earth moving in Napier right now, and it keeps rolling #eqnz

— Fiona Windle (@FiWindle) April 25, 2023

Well, that was a mid-morning wake-up call. Wide awake now. Long, swirling and very trembling. #eqnz #wellington #earthquake https://t.co/EaFGMZ9JUI

— Aus Kiwi Dog (@auskiwidog) April 25, 2023 Advertisement with NZME.

Geonet said there was severe tremor in Burangau this morning with a M5.9 aftershock closely followed by a M5.4.

“Our team is still looking into this, so the size/locations are currently tentative. We will update the information ASAP.”

A homeowner on the Kapiti Coast said he felt a “rolling rock roll” that lasted about 30 seconds.

“It wasn’t a big shake, just a rolling motion.”

The man’s house is on Raumati South Beach, but he wasn’t worried about any potential tsunami and didn’t plan to move to higher ground.

“I don’t think any tsunami will reach us here because we are 10 meters above average tidal level.”

Advertise with NZME. “Some of the biggest we’ve seen in the last 10 years or so.”

Dr. Laura Wallace, a scientific geophysicist with GNS, said the quakes occurred in an area that “is subject to earthquakes relatively frequently.”

“In the past, we’ve repeatedly seen swarms of medium to large earthquakes there, but today’s two events were some of the largest we’ve seen in the last 10 years or so.”

The region sat close to the boundary of the Pacific and Australian plates—the former subducting beneath the other, westward under the North Island, to create the Hikurangi subduction zone.

It also happens to be a hot spot for slow-moving earthquakes called “slow slide events,” which can release pent-up energy over weeks, months, and years. These tend to occur within areas where the subduction zone was moving from being ‘stuck’ down the southern North Island, to an area where the subduction zone was ‘creeping’ to the north, around Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay.

One such event – linked to the 6.3 earthquake in Kapiti in February – was still deepening under the Manawatu and Horohenoa regions, and Wallace suspected that the day’s tremors were also linked to the process.

“Sometimes we can have an earthquake like this when we don’t have a slow slide, but I think there is a reasonably high probability that this is related to the ongoing Manawatu slide event,” she said.

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“It’s not very far from that area and we tend to see swarms of earthquakes like this one during slow-slide events in Manawatu.”

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