Here's a look at the situation facing residents and authorities in different parts of the country. However, it could cause landslides, resulting from earthquakes, mud lahars (a violent type of mudflow or debris flow) and ground subsidence.Īnother New Zealand volcano hit the headlines in 2019 when White Island or Whakaari suddenly erupted as a tourist group was hiking on the island, killing 22 people and seriously injuring 25 others. The magnitude-6.1 quake struck near Wellington at 8pm on Wednesday local time, according to New Zealand earthquake monitoring agency GeoNet, however, there were no immediate reports of damage or injury. According to the paper, the ground at the southern end of the lake sank by 5.5 inches, while at the north-eastern section, with the most active vents, the ground rose by around 6.3 inches.Īccording to GeoNet, Taupō's volcanic unrest could continue for months without any real eruption. Research published in the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics in February found that the ground under Lake Taupo has been shifting. The supervolcano beneath Lake Tuapō has had its alert level upgraded on the Volcanic Alert Level scale. Water boils at Wai-O-Tapu, 30 miles from Lake Tuapō in New Zealand. The VAL scale ranges between 0, with no volcanic unrest, and 8, which represents a mega-colossal volcanic eruption. This marks the first time that GeoNet has raised the VAL for Taupō volcano to to 1, however, there have been 17 previous episodes of similar volcanic unrest over the past 150 years, some of which were more severe than what is currently being observed. Supervolcanoes, which also include Yellowstone, Long Valley in eastern California and Toba in Indonesia, are volcanoes that erupt with magnitude 8 or greater on the Volcano Explosivity Index, which means that deposits of the eruption are spread further than 240 cubic miles.Īccording to GeoNet, more than 700 earthquakes have been recorded beneath Lake Taupō in 2022, with an increase in the frequency of these earthquakes being seen since May, at depths between 2.5 and 8 miles beneath the lake. Read our bulletin with all of the information here: /FD31y9iYqD- GeoNet September 20, 2022 This minor unrest is causing the ongoing earthquakes & ground deformation at the volcano. Church accused of performing unlicensed exorcisms. It usually happens with soil that is saturated with water and then shaken.ĭuring earthquakes, the shaking can not only loosen the soil but also cause water to rise up from deeper down, making liquefaction more likely.The Volcanic Alert Level for Taupō Volcano has been raised to Volcanic Alert Level 1 (minor volcanic unrest). A 5.6 magnitude earthquake has struck the central North Island overnight. Soil liquefaction can happen when soil is shaken up, and the tension it can normally hold – which is often enough to hold up roads and buildings – is reduced to nearly zero. There have been reports of widespread liquefaction of soil, particularly on reclaimed land around the Wellington waterfront and the Picton foreshore. What is this ‘liquefaction’ people are talking about? Scientists from New Zealand’s GNS Science have said they’re not sure yet which faults were involved. James Goff from the University of New South Wales says: “Yet again, New Zealand’s earthquakes are proving to be anything but easy to understand.” They say the plate boundaries have such a complex structure that, with the strain that builds up being applied to many different structures, there may have been more than one fault that caused the earthquake sequence.ĭr Behzad Fatahi from the University of Technology Sydney says: “The complexity of fault lines and tectonic activities is due to the fact that tectonic plates in some locations such as east of the North Island move toward each (creating compressive stresses), and in some other regions such as South Island slide past each other (generating shear stresses), both creating shallow earthquakes.” Subduction occurs when one plate is pushed down under another plate.īut according to the US Geological Survey, scientists didn’t think that there was any subduction happening where this earthquake occurred. Was it one quake or two?Īccording to the US Geological Survey, the size, depth and direction of the fault points towards a kind of fault called a “subduction zone”, which can cause very large quakes. In very general terms, that movement is causing the two plates to collide, creating tension which is released in earthquakes.

At the location of the quake, the Pacific plate is moving roughly west at about 40mm a year relative to the Australian plate.

New zealand quake