Wellington has been shaken by a second decent earthquake in as many days after being hit by a magnitude 5.2 quake early this afternoon.
The quake, which according to GeoNet struck 30km north-west of Levin at a depth of 33km at 12.34pm, was felt widely in the capital.
The quake was categorised as moderate by GeoNet.
Twitter users in Wellington and the surrounding regions including Taranaki reported feeling the shake.
Yesterday just before 8am, there was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that struck 30km north-west of Levin, at a depth of 37km.
Jonathan Hanson, the seismic duty officer at GNS, told 1 NEWS this quake was a bit of an outlier but it’s not uncommon.
“Until today there was a decrease in seismic activity associated with yesterday’s quake, but this could reset the sequence, we’ll have to wait and see,” he said.
The quake in this zone is larger than what they normally observe but not entirely unexpected, Mr Hanson said.
“I don’t think there is a high likelihood” of this triggering quakes in further locations, he said.
The lower North Island has now had 143 aftershocks in relation to yesterday morning’s quake and is expected to have between 100 to 200 aftershocks, a GNS spokesperson told 1 NEWS earlier.
With each quake it is always expected there will be one large aftershock in the next magnitude down, 10 in the 3-4 magnitude range and 100 in the 2-3 magnitude range, the spokesperson said.
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