New Zealand Earthquakes during 1946

Abstract

ACCORDING to the Dominion Obsevatory Bulletin, No S–85, there were recorded in New Zealand, during 1946, 273 locally felt earthquakes. One of these, on June 26, was felt with Modified Mercalli scale 7–8, while five others, on February 12, February 26, June 7, June 28 and September 14, were felt with scale 6. The remainder had lesser intensities. The general distribution of earthquakes was such that most had epicentres north of the latitude of Christ-church with very few to the south of this line. There was a strong cluster of epicentres to the south-southwest of Arthur's Pass at the northern end of the Southern Alps, and the epicentre of the shock of June 26 was in this region. Another cluster lay in the Tasman Sea towards Cook Strait, while further epicentres tended to lie towards the median line of North Island between Wanganui and the Bay of Plenty, and others in the Pacific Ocean to the northeast of New Zealand. The second greatest shock, that on February 12 (scale 6 +), had its epicentre at a point to the south-east of Wanganui at the southern end of North Island.