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Minor mag. 1.6 earthquake - New Zealand on Tuesday, Mar 21, 2023 at 11:54 pm (GMT +13) -

Minor magnitude 1.6 earthquake at 54 km depth

21 Mar 10:56 UTC: First to report: GEONET (NZ) after 2 minutes.
21 Mar 10:58: Magnitude recalculated from 1.5 to 1.6. Hypocenter depth recalculated from 49.5 to 49.8 km (from 31 to 31 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 1.7 km (1 mi) towards SE.
21 Mar 11:16: Hypocenter depth recalculated from 49.8 to 53.6 km (from 31 to 33 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 0.7 km (0.4 mi) towards SSE.

Earthquake details

Date & time	Mar 21, 2023 10:54:24 UTC -
Local time at epicenter	Tuesday, Mar 21, 2023 at 11:54 pm (GMT +13)
Status	Confirmed
Magnitude	1.6
Depth	53.6 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude	41.29404°S / 173.54263°E (New Zealand)
Antipode	41.294°N / 6.457°W
Shaking intensity	Not felt
Felt
Primary data source	GEONET (NZ) (Earthquake Commission and Geological Survey, New Zealand)
Nearest volcano	Taranaki (226 km / 140 mi)
Nearby towns and cities	19 km (12 mi) W of Havelock (pop: 504) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 22 km (14 mi) E of Nelson (pop: 59,200) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 26 km (16 mi) E of Stoke (pop: 19,800) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 30 km (19 mi) N of Wairau Valley (pop: 2,150) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 33 km (21 mi) NW of Renwick (pop: 2,620) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 39 km (24 mi) W of Picton (pop: 4,790) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 47 km (30 mi) ESE of Motueka (pop: 7,490) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby 103 km (64 mi) W of Wellington (pop: 381,900) \| Show on map \| Quakes nearby
Weather at epicenter at time of quake	Overcast Clouds 11.9°C (53 F), humidity: 72%, wind: 1 m/s (2 kts) from SSE
Estimated seismic energy released	1.6 x 10⁷ joules (4.4 kilowatt hours) \| 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
1.6	54 km	New Zealand	GEONET (NZ)
1.6	54 km	South Island, New Zealand	RaspberryShake

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User reports for this quake

At magnitude 1.6, such a quake wouldn't normally be felt by people, but could be recorded instrumentally.

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