After the cyclone, strong earthquake hits North Island in New Zealand
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Wellington: After cyclone Garbielle hit New Zealand, the island nation's capital Wellington was hit by a stronger-than-usual earthquake on Wednesday. There were no damages or tsunami warnings.
Residents said they felt a sudden jolt and buildings were slightly shaking. They said the ground shook for 10-20 seconds and it felt like a convoy of giant trucks rolling by. Within 15 minutes, over 31,000 people reported the quake.
"A big shake there! A magnitude 6.0, 57 km deep, 50 km north-west of Paraparaumu was widely felt in the North Island," said New Zealand's Civil Defence agency. The US Geological Survey said the quake measured 5.7 on the moment magnitude scale. The epicentre was in the Cook Strait between the two main islands of New Zealand.
It is not uncommon for New Zealand to experience earthquakes because it is on the boundary of the Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate. Due to these plates constantly grinding into each other, the brittle upper layers experience tremors from the build-up stress. Approximately 15,000 quakes are recorded in the country every year. Most of them are too small to be noticed. Around 150-200 are big enough to be felt by humans.