31000 people felt the earthquake within 15 minutes
On Wednesday, a massive earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck the northwestern part of Wellington, New Zealand. The quake was located at a moderately shallow depth of 57.4 km, according to preliminary data. At 7.38 p.m., the earthquake struck at a depth of 76 kilometres. It was located 50 kilometres north-west of Paraparaumu.
Within 15 minutes, over 31000 people reported on GeoNet that they had felt the earthquake. “A big shake there! A magnitude 6.0, 57 km deep, 50 km north-west of Paraparaumu was widely felt in the North Island,” said New Zealand's Civil Defence agency.
There have been no reports of immediate damage, and no tsunami warning has been issued. But residents reported feeling the ground shaking for 10-20 seconds, likening it to a convoy of giant trucks rolling by.
New Zealand is located on the seismically active "Ring of Fire," a 40,000-kilometer arc of volcanoes and ocean trenches that encircles the Pacific Ocean. This comes after Cyclone Gabrielle caused significant damage across the North Island this week, killing four people and displacing over 10,000 people.
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