Dozens of quakes set Bay rattling and rolling

Te Hamua Nikora. Photo / Duncan Brown

Fifty-three earthquakes have struck Hawke's Bay in the past week, with the biggest measuring magnitude 4.5.

GeoNet reported Wairoa had the strongest shake of the week on Monday at 12.34pm, when the 4.5 quake hit 15km south of the town and 19km deep. Yesterday, Napier and Hastings felt a moderate tremor of 4.2 at 2.22pm, just 20km east of Napier and 14km deep.

Hawke's Bay residents commented about the earth moving on our Facebook page: "Yippers, just a quick sharp jolt here," said Jules Cunningham, and Rach McQuade said "Bit of a jolt ... I hate them!"

June 10 proved to be the most unstable day of the week with three shakes felt throughout the region, including the 4.5 tremor in Wairoa which followed a 2.9 shake earlier in the morning and a 2.6 that was 15km east of Napier.

Last month 193 earthquakes rattled Hawke's Bay, while last year GeoNet recorded 2053, six being greater than magnitude 4 on the Richter scale.

Mana Party candidate Te Hamua Nikora said: "I was in Napier when it struck and it freaked me out. We all know that our country sits on fault lines and today was a reminder of that."

He said if there was ever a message to not allow fracking to take place, yesterday's earthquake was it.

"Why take the risk?"