Significant earthquakes have been reported across the world recently, with Colombia, Japan, Venezuela and the Philippines all having major earthquakes resulting in major damage and high casualties.
The majority of these earthquakes have happened around the Pacific Ring of Fire, as it is the most seismically active region of the planet.
But GNS Science tells MetroNews that despite the recent activity, New Zealanders shouldn’t be worried about an increase in major earthquakes.
The Pacific Ring of Fire has the majority of the largest earthquakes in the world. This is due to it being made up of many tectonic plates that dive beneath each other and collide, slowly putting stress on the Earth's crust until it ruptures.
GNS seismology duty officer Jen Andrews said the recent earthquakes do not show an increase in this activity.
“Earthquakes don’t occur regularly in time, but they do show average trends over time. So far this year we have recorded 11 earthquakes of M7+ globally, so definitely within the usual rates.”
Although there may not be an increase in earthquakes, Andrews said there have been more reports of earthquakes that occur close to major cities and lead to significant damage.
“This sadly has been the case over the last few months.”
For New Zealand, the Alpine Fault is a major magnitude 8+ event that has a 75% probability of occurring in the next 50 years. Andrews said despite that, there’s no more reason for concern about a large magnitude New Zealand earthquake today compared with any other day.
“It is also important to understand that damaging earthquakes could occur anywhere in New Zealand as we have so many active faults.”
The best action New Zealanders can take is to know what to do in case of an earthquake: Drop, cover and hold; Get prepared; or, in case of a tsunami, learn about Long or strong, get gone.
