Quakes rattle Gisborne area

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Gisborne and Northern Hawke's Bay have been rocked by a series of earthquakes between magnitude 4.2 and 3.3 at a relatively shallow depth, but no damage has been reported.

Four earthquakes occured within the space of about an hour and a half of each other between 12:30 and 2pm today and came after a 3.8 earthquake at 6:49am this morning, all at the same location 30km south of Gisborne.

The latest earthquake was magnitude 4.1 at 2:00pm, which followed a magnitude 3.3 at 1:01 pm, 4.2 jolt at 12:53pm and 4.2 at 12:39pm, according to GNS Science.

All five earthquakes have been relatively shallow at a focal depth of around 25km and have been felt in Gisborne and northern Hawke's Bay.

Caroline Holden from GNS science said swarms of earthquakes were quite common, and not necessarily an indication of a bigger shake on the way.

"This is just part of a small swarm of earthquakes, and they're quite normal in the region."

Most of the quakes were recorded at a depth of about 25km, the same depth as the interface between two tectonic plates, "right where the plates rub each other," she said.

A similar swarm near Gisborne last year lasted for about a day.

The swarm of earthquakes in Gisborne follows a magnitude 5.9 earthquake early Friday morning which was felt widely across the North Island, causing some people to leap out of bed.

GNS Science said that quake was located 30 km north of Taupo at a depth of 150 km and it struck at 4:02 am, but because it was deep in the earth it did not cause major damage.

The string of quakes comes as Hawke's Bay prepares to remember the 80th anniversary of New Zealand's worst natural disaster, the 1931 earthquake which claimed 258 lives.