'It was bouncy, and bloody loud': Small quake moves Dunedin

Tuesday, 24 May 2022

An aerial photo over South Dunedin, where some residents reported a small jolt early on Tuesday morning.

A small quake jolted Dunedin early on Tuesday morning.

On social media, dozens of people reported being woken by a quake at 12.57am.

“It was bouncy, and bloody loud,” one Twitter user said.

GeoNet said the quake was centred 30 kilometres northwest of central Dunedin, near George King Memorial Drive.

The massive Alpine Fault is due for another big earthquake and scientists have been drawing up a scenario of what the devastation would look like. (First published May 2018)

* DNA from kelp records major earthquake that hit Otago about 1000 years ago

* Dunedin's closest active fault 'behaves strangely and the risk is hard to define'**

Some 1140 people reported feeling the quake on GeoNet’s website: 559 classified the jolt as 'weak', while 525 classified it as 'light'.

Jonathan Hanson, GNS Science’s seismic duty officer, said: “Last night’s earthquake was unusual but … not unexpected.

“Over the last 20 years there have been 15 shallow earthquakes greater than M3 around Dunedin – many of which would have been felt in Dunedin – and notably in 2014 and 2015 we had a M4 and a M4.7 in a very similar location to last night’s event.”

There were known active faults in the area, “and probably several more we haven’t been able to point yet as we either haven’t observed enough activity on them or have good field observations”, he said.

“This activity is a good reminder that there is potential for seismic activity everywhere in NZ, and Dunedin is no exception.”

The University of Otago's department of geology and GNS Science, a Crown research institute, revealed in 2017 that the closest active geological fault to Dunedin behaved strangely and may have a “maverick streak'.

The Akatore Fault runs south of the Taieri Plains and offshore from Taieri Mouth.

Seismologists think a 1974 Dunedin quake was caused by a rupture along a fault, or faults, parallel and close to the Akatore Fault.

The 1974 quake, which was later assessed as measuring magnitude 5, led to about 3000 claims to the Earthquake Commission.

Video courtesy of RNZ