Recent Earthquakes Near Kaikōura

Earthquakes recorded near town lately from GeoNet, with the fault story and what to do when it shakes.

About these tools

Earthquakes recorded near Kaikōura lately, straight from GeoNet — and the things that matter when the ground shakes here.

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M3.2

84 km northeast of Kaikōura · Light — widely felt · 5 days ago

1 earthquake of magnitude M3.0 or larger within 150 km of town in the last 30 days.

Recent earthquakes

Magnitude	Where	Depth	Shaking	When
M3.2	84 km northeast	10 km deep	Light — widely felt	5 days ago

This page is not an earthquake warning

Every quake here was recorded after it happened — no one can predict earthquakes, and this page cannot warn you of one. What it can do is show what the ground has been doing lately. If you feel a long or violent quake near the coast, act on the advice above without waiting for any alert.

Long or strong? Get gone.

If an earthquake lasts longer than a minute, or is strong enough that it's hard to stand up, don't wait for an official warning — move immediately to high ground or as far inland as you can. A tsunami from a quake this close can arrive in minutes. That is New Zealand's official advice for this coast, and it comes before any siren, phone alert or this page.

The official channels

GeoNet — the official quake record (and “Felt it? Report it”)Every quake's official magnitude, depth and location, plus a one-tap way to log that you felt it.
Long or Strong, Get Gone — NEMA tsunami adviceWhat to do the moment a big quake hits near the coast.
Canterbury Civil Defence (CDEM) — 03 366 2359Regional emergency coordination and Know Your Zone tsunami maps.
Kaikōura District Council — civil defence statusLocal alerts and updates when something is happening.

Why Kaikōura shakes

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 24 August at 1:50 pm. 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.