Almost to prove that New Zealand can endure … An earthquake measuring 5.8 on the ‘richter scale’ was felt in the capital of Wellington on Monday May 25th (early today).
’Quite a decent shake here’ quipped a very cool Prime Minister Ms Jacinda Ardern.
WHY?
Earthquakes in New Zealand occur because we are located on the boundary of two of the world’s major tectonic plates – the Pacific Plate and the Australian Plate. These plates are colliding with huge force, causing one to slowly grind over, under or alongside the other.
New Zealand has experienced about 10 tsunamis higher than 5m since 1840. Some were caused by distant earthquakes, but most by seafloor quakes not far off the coast. A nearby coastal seafloor earthquake is the only warning people may get before a tsunami arrives. Today’s quake did not lead to any major damage, nor any tsunami.
more about New Zealand earthquakes Geonet
Richter Scale explained
Richter scale (ML), quantitative measure of an earthquake’s magnitude (size), devised in 1935 by American seismologists Charles F. Richter and Beno Gutenberg. The earthquake’s magnitude is determined using the logarithm of the amplitude (height) of the largest seismic wave calibrated to a scale by a seismograph.
