My First Earthquake

This afternoon saw me sitting peacefully in front of my computer working on an assignment when all of a sudden the whole house literally moved.  The window pane next to me as well as the mirrored closet doors actually rattled as did the roof tiles.  It was really eerie.  Randel, who had fallen asleep was woken with my telling him shrieking to "Wake up the house just moved!".

Within minutes the news of an earthquake was out - although Auckland has many earthquakes year in and year out, it is extremely seldom for one to be big enough for us to feel it.   Apparently there were two today with us only feeling the one.  It was quite an experience, that I will say!

"Two earthquakes this afternoon shook the greater Auckland city region. No serious damage is expected.

Map showing the epicentres of the two quakes near Auckland. The larger one is highlighted.

The first, a magnitude 3.1 event, occurred at 4:01 pm; it was followed at 4:05 pm by a magnitude 3.9 quake. The accompanying map shows their epicentres were in the vicinity of Motutapu Island.
They both occurred at comparatively shallow depths, about 5 km below the surface. They will have been felt very sharply by people, but not widely, and any felt reports much beyond greater Auckland are unlikely to be verified."