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Moderate mag. 4.2 earthquake - 27 km southwest of Whakatane, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, on Saturday, Mar 18, 2023 at 9:52 am (GMT +13) -

Moderate magnitude 4.2 earthquake at 3 km depth

17 Mar 20:54 UTC: First to report: GEONET (NZ) after 1 minute.
17 Mar 20:55: Magnitude recalculated from 2.3 to 2.6.
17 Mar 20:58: Magnitude recalculated from 2.6 to 4.2. Hypocenter depth recalculated from 5.6 to 2.5 km (from 3.5 to 1.6 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 1 km (0.6 mi) towards E.

Earthquake details

Date & time	Mar 17, 2023 20:52:49 UTC -
Local time at epicenter	Saturday, Mar 18, 2023 at 9:52 am (GMT +13)
Status	Confirmed
Magnitude	4.2
Depth	2.5 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude	38.05687°S / 176.70837°E (Kawerau District, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand)
Antipode	38.057°N / 3.292°W
Shaking intensity	Moderate shaking near epicenter
Felt	0 reports
Primary data source	GEONET (NZ) (Earthquake Commission and Geological Survey, New Zealand)
Nearest volcano	Okataina (Tarawera) (20 km / 12 mi)
Nearby towns and cities	5 km (3 mi) N of Kawerau (pop: 6,700) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 14 km (8 mi) SW of Edgecumbe (pop: 1,790) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 27 km (17 mi) WSW of Whakatane (pop: 18,600) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 42 km (26 mi) ENE of Rotorua (pop: 65,900) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 63 km (39 mi) SE of Tauranga (pop: 110,300) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 88 km (55 mi) NE of Taupo (Waikato) (pop: 22,500) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 129 km (80 mi) ESE of Hamilton (Waikato) (pop: 152,600) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 395 km (246 mi) NNE of Wellington (pop: 381,900) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby
Weather at epicenter at time of quake	Overcast Clouds 18.4°C (65 F), humidity: 99%, wind: 1 m/s (2 kts) from W
Estimated seismic energy released	1.3 x 10¹¹ joules (35 megawatt hours, equivalent to 30.1 tons of TNT) \| about seismic energy

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Data for the same earthquake reported by different agencies

Info: The more agencies report about the same quake and post similar data, the more confidence you can have in the data. It takes normally up to a few hours until earthquake parameters are calculated with near-optimum precision.

Mag.	Depth	Location	Source
4.2	2.5 km	New Zealand	GEONET (NZ)
4.2	2 km	North Island, New Zealand	RaspberryShake
4.2	2 km	NORTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND	EMSC

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User reports for this quake

User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale.

There are no user reports for this quake.

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