Fear of the “huge” when aftershocks shake Te Aroha

A 5.1-magnitude earthquake jolted northern New Zealand’s Upper Island on Wednesday morning, with a report of freezing rolling 30cm across the galley near the epicenter.

GeoNet said the quake occurred at 5.39 am, five kilometers south of Waikato town in Te Aroha.

It was the talk of the town, with people recounting their shaky awakening and the gift shop manager wondering if something bigger was coming.

The earthquake “makes me wonder if we’re heading for a major earthquake,” says Roen Butaka, director of gift shop Addiction. (Kelly Hodel/Stuff) A 5.1-magnitude earthquake rocked the North Island on Wednesday morning. (GeoNet/supplied)

The shallow earthquake was at a depth of seven kilometers, and was classified as “strong” by the Geonet network in its initial report.

Over 7,000 earthquake reports have been recorded at 5.53am with the majority considered to be mild or moderate – and several aftershocks have been reported, including a moderate earthquake at 11.21am.

Te Aroha resident Rwen Potaka woke up when the bed moved, and things fell off the shelves.

“It gave me a huge scare, and it’s the biggest I’ve ever felt in Te Aroha. It makes me wonder if we’re headed for a big trip.”

Butaka runs an addictive gift shop on the high street and said the products had fallen off the shelves.

“I knew the store would be affected, so I’ve been putting things back on the shelves this morning.”

Jan Llewell worked in a second-hand shop and said that a lot of plates, crockery and mugs had fallen off the shelves.

I woke up just before the earthquake.

“It was a rolling jolt that went on for a while,” said Andrew Height, owner of Williams Furniture and Hardware. (Kelly Hodel/Stuff) Both earthquakes hit just south of Te Aroha, which has vast plains on one side and mountain ranges on the other. (Kelly Hodel/Staff)

“I heard a big bang before the tremor. There was one last week – it lasted longer but not as severe as today.”

She said that this time the freezer rolled on the kitchen floor about 30 cm.

“My little dog was shaking and whining, so I brought her to work. She must have known he was coming because she didn’t want to get out of bed.”

Andrew Height, owner of Williams Home Furniture and Hardware, said the cat jumped off the bed when the shaking started.

“It was good, it was a cyclic jolt that lasted for a while.

While this did not frighten him, his wife, Lisette, was horrified.

“I’ve never seen her get out of bed so early or so quickly,” Haight said.

The couple’s pool was steaming up for quite a while after that.

Jo Gifford said she was at the store getting a basic emergency kit for a friend, like a water bowl and bucket.

Joe Gifford was at the local hardware store buying a supply of water containers for a friend’s civil defense kit. (Kelly Hodel/Staff)

Gifford said it felt like you were on a boat when the shaking started.

“The house didn’t move, but it was shaking.”

She was used to earthquakes growing up in Morrisville and in the 70’s she had earthquakes all the time.

“If you put concrete you’ll just wait and then see the little cracks appear. You grow up knowing you’re near the Kerepehi fault line, but we didn’t have big earthquakes in the area…not like Edgecumbe. It was unbelievable – cows ate and part of the railroad fell off.” in Earth “.

Matamata-Biako District Council member Sarah Jane Bourne said the tremor was “bloody good”.

She was sitting in her car outside the milking shed about 10 kilometers west of Te Aroha when the earthquake struck.

“The car started rocking and rolling, and I thought that was very windy, but I looked outside, and it was still.”

She said she did not feel the aftershocks but knew there were “a couple of decent aftershocks”.

Bourne said the council would send people out to check for potential damage to infrastructure, but she did not know of any damage reported until 8am.

She said they’ve had two earthquakes in the past two weeks, but they rarely happen in general.

Matamata Biaco Mayor Adrian Wilcock lives in Matamata and said he wasn’t strong enough to wake the family up for a visit from Christchurch.

An episode revealed about some people having things fall off their shelves, but as of 10 a.m., they weren’t aware of any serious damage.

“There are employees who are checking infrastructure and bridges.”

Meanwhile, Shane Downey in Cambridge said the quake woke him up and sent his bed “bouncing”.

“It reminded me of a truckload of traffic, but it lasted about 39 seconds,” he said.

There have also been reports of it being felt in Lymington.

Geonet reported six more – smaller – tremors in Te Aroha as of 11.40am on Wednesday.

Most were rated weak and one moderate, and all were rated five kilometers south of the city.

GeoNet expects this to continue over the coming hours and days with decreasing frequency and volume.

GeoNet said the last strong earthquake in Te Aroha was in 1972, with a magnitude of 4.9 on the Richter scale.

It also struck five kilometers southeast of the town of Waikato.

Earthquakes are fairly uncommon in the area, but in the aftermath of event 3.9 from GNS Science it’s a good reminder that in New Zealand “you can still get bigger, destructive earthquakes no matter where you are,” said John Restow, a science seismologist.

Restau said the quake did not occur on a known fault line.

“Most earthquakes don’t actually occur on any known fault line or fault line we’ve drawn before. That’s definitely the case with this earthquake as well.”

A police spokesperson said they were not aware of any damage, but that people had called to report the quake.

This story originally appeared on Stuff and is reproduced with permission.

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