A strong earthquake shakes New Zealand: the South Island is particularly affected

New Zealand was once again hit by a strong earthquake. The earthquake was felt mainly by residents of the South Island.

New Zealand was hit by a strong earthquake on Wednesday morning (local time). According to the national seismic station Geonet, the magnitude of the quake reached 6.0. Accordingly, it occurred at a shallow depth not exceeding about ten kilometers. The US Seismological Service (USGS) said that the magnitude of the earthquake reached 5.6.

The tremors occurred shortly after 9 a.m. this morning. There were more than 14,338 Geonet reports from people who felt the quake, most of them in the South Island town of Geraldine, about 130 kilometers south of the main city of Christchurch.

Residents informed local media about the siren. “I just grabbed the table… the chairs moved around the room,” Ferguson Seale, a resident of the coastal city of Timaru on the South Island, was quoted by Australian news channel 9 News as saying. An observer in Geraldine said the quake lasted about a minute.

In 2011, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake caused severe damage in the same area. At that time, 195 people had died in the South Pacific island nation. This time, the matter seems to have ended on a lighter note: “We have not received any reports of damage yet,” the Civil Protection Agency wrote on X (formerly Twitter). No tsunami warning was issued either.