One of New Zealand’s biggest earthquakes of the year has struck the Boisegur Trench – but no one felt it

A 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck the south of the South Island this afternoon. Image / GeoNet

One of the largest earthquakes in New Zealand this year struck at 2.21pm today, in an area with proven tsunami-generating potential.

But such was the distance of the 5.9-magnitude quake from the mainland – it struck 450km south of the South Island, and 285km southwest of the remote Snares Islands – that only one person reported feeling it on GeoNet.

It happened to strike near an incomprehensible seismic zone which produced some of the most powerful earthquakes in modern New Zealand history.

This was the Puysegur Trench: the plate boundary where the Australian plate sinks below the Pacific plate—in the opposite way to how the two plates sink on the North Island, in the well-known Hikurangi subduction zone.

Advertise with NZME.

The border extends more than 800km south from the South Island, to a point in the wild and windswept Southern Ocean, about 400km west of the Auckland Islands.

Noticed shallow regional earthquake M6.2 330 km southwest of Stewart Island on the Puysegur Trench along the plate boundary. https://t.co/euG0LLwirp pic.twitter.com/NZfotyTCpK

– Gulf Hauraki weather (@GulfHauraki) May 31, 2023

In 2009, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the Fjordland near the northern end of the trench, releasing 25,000 times more energy than the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945 and twisting the South Island, moving Puysegur Pt on the southwestern tip of the island by close to 30 centimeters. Australia.

Its remote location, near Dusky Sound, meant that there was relatively little damage.

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit the trench itself in November 2004 – a month before a magnitude 8.1 earthquake near the trench sent shaking felt as far as Tasmania.

Advertise with NZME.

GeoNet’s alternate seismologist, Dr. Jonathan Hanson, said we can be reasonably confident that the earthquake this afternoon is related to subduction zone processes in the area.

“The fact that we’re seeing a lot of events located in a really similar area reinforces that it’s likely related to some of the processes going on there.”

In the past 20 years, scientists have identified about 100 events in the region.

This was actually a M6.0 earthquake, 450 kilometers south of Stewart Island, near the Boisejour subduction zone. Read more about why we get “ghost quakes” here: https://t.co/8ECm6t1svL https://t.co/CfOx6VCgnW

— GeoNet (@geonet) May 31, 2023

“The actual amount is likely to be much higher than that, but since we’re so far away from our instruments, it’s hard to get a full sense of how active the seismic activity is there — other than we need an event above magnitude five, to be relatively confident in it.”

Hanson said events like today have also been instrumental in shedding new light on a hard-to-study seismic region.

“One of the things that caught my eye about this event was that it was a slip event, whereas in that area, we tend to see a mixture of reverse slip and slip.”

In a counter-slip fault, each side of the crustal mass slides past the other without being lifted or pushed down, while in a reverse fault, the mass above the fault moves up relative to the mass below the crack.

“This is an interesting phenomenon in itself, as we can see two distinct types of seismic activity in this region,” he said.

“But the main thing to take away from this, is that it’s a reminder that we have a subduction zone off the South Island that is productive and capable of generating large tsunamis.”

At noon today, no tsunami risk has been identified for New Zealand.

Advertise with NZME.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/one-of-new-zealands-biggest-earthquakes-of-year-just-struck-in-puysegur-trench-but-no-one-felt-it/KFPNWH7AZ5DXZPIE3E574QQZA4/ The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

What Are The Main Benefits Of Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2020, / Compare-autoinsurance.Org has launched a new blog post that presents the main benefits of comparing multiple car insurance quotes. For more info and free online quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/the-advantages-of-comparing-prices-with-car-insurance-quotes-online/ The modern society has numerous technological advantages. One important advantage is the speed at which information is sent and received. With the help of the internet, the shopping habits of many persons have drastically changed. The car insurance industry hasn't remained untouched by these changes. On the internet, drivers can compare insurance prices and find out which sellers have the best offers. View photos The advantages of comparing online car insurance quotes are the following: Online quotes can be obtained from anywhere and at any time. Unlike physical insurance agencies, websites don't have a specific schedule and they are available at any time. Drivers that have busy working schedules, can compare quotes from anywhere and at any time, even at midnight. Multiple choices. Almost all insurance providers, no matter if they are well-known brands or just local insurers, have an online presence. Online quotes will allow policyholders the chance to discover multiple insurance companies and check their prices. Drivers are no longer required to get quotes from just a few known insurance companies. Also, local and regional insurers can provide lower insurance rates for the same services. Accurate insurance estimates. Online quotes can only be accurate if the customers provide accurate and real info about their car models and driving history. Lying about past driving incidents can make the price estimates to be lower, but when dealing with an insurance company lying to them is useless. Usually, insurance companies will do research about a potential customer before granting him coverage. Online quotes can be sorted easily. Although drivers are recommended to not choose a policy just based on its price, drivers can easily sort quotes by insurance price. Using brokerage websites will allow drivers to get quotes from multiple insurers, thus making the comparison faster and easier. For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ Compare-autoinsurance.Org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. "Online quotes can easily help drivers obtain better car insurance deals. All they have to do is to complete an online form with accurate and real info, then compare prices", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing CompanyPerson for contact Name: Gurgu CPhone Number: (818) 359-3898Email: [email protected]: https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ SOURCE: Compare-autoinsurance.Org View source version on accesswire.Com:https://www.Accesswire.Com/595055/What-Are-The-Main-Benefits-Of-Comparing-Car-Insurance-Quotes-Online View photos