Earthquakes recorded near town lately from GeoNet, with the fault story and what to do when it shakes.
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Earthquakes recorded near Kaikōura lately, straight from GeoNet — and the things that matter when the ground shakes here.
Strongest in this window
M4.4
112 km north of Kaikōura · Light — widely felt ·
5 earthquakes of magnitude M3.0 or larger within 150 km of town in the last 30 days.
This page is not an earthquake warning
Long or strong? Get gone.
Kaikōura sits in one of New Zealand's most active earthquake regions — on the Marlborough Fault System (the Hope, Kekerengu, Awatere and Clarence faults) above the offshore Hikurangi subduction margin.
At two minutes past midnight on 14 November 2016, a magnitude 7.8 quake ruptured more than 20 faults at once — one of the most complex ever recorded on land. It lifted about 110 km of coast by up to six metres, set off more than 10,000 landslides, and cut State Highway 1 and the railway for roughly a year. Two people died.
A quiet week is normal and a felt shake is part of life here. The faults haven't gone anywhere, so the habit that matters is the one below: near the coast, a long or violent quake is your cue to move, without waiting for anyone to tell you.
Checked 10 July at 10:26. Earthquake data from GeoNet (GeoNet / GNS Science, CC BY 3.0 NZ). Magnitude, depth and felt intensity are revised as analysis improves, and very fresh quakes can take minutes to appear.