Biggest of swarm of earthquakes in the Taupō Volcanic Zone felt by many

Nearly 100 earthquakes were recorded around Taupō within eight hours yesterday. Photo / File

Bay of Plenty residents got a shaky start to winter with just under 100 earthquakes around north Taupō since yesterday afternoon.

Between 4.30pm and 9.30pm yesterday, just under 100 earthquakes were registered in a swarm about 25-30km north of Taupō.

The largest of these quakes was magnitude 3.1 at a depth of 4km which was felt and reported 181 times.

The latest shake was at 4.37am today 25km north of Taupō, a magnitude 1.6 and 4km deep.

Quake swarms are common in the Taupō Volcanic Zone, with most lasting only short periods of time, usually a day or two.

A swarm is a sequence of earthquakes which strike in a short period of time, located close to each other.

Although large earthquakes sometimes follow smaller associated earthquake swarms, swarms of seismic activity did not necessarily indicate that a large earthquake would follow.

GeoNet will monitor the swarm and update if the situation changes.