It's a new month and the quakes are back, this morning a magnitude 6.0 - rocked Gisborne, New Zealand and last Thursday a powerful magnitude 6.5 shook the Kermadec Islands, north of New Zealand which was preceded by a magnitude 6.0 in the Fiji region. Incredibly, 32 major quakes, mag 6 or higher have hit this area in just the first 96 days of 2021! See map above.
We are still waiting for the "BIG ONE!" With an incredible 1800 quakes above mag 2.0 in the first three months of 2021, along with the world's largest quake this year, a magnitude 8.1 off the Kermadec Islands and mag 7.4 foreshock, we are still waiting for the big one. The area is averaging 19 quakes a day above mag 2. See USGS map below.
The eastern margin of the Australian plate has dominated this year's seismic activity so far producing 32 of a total 52 major quakes, mag 6 or higher, worldwide and that number is the third-highest ever in the first 3 months of a year beaten only in 2011 when 102 major quakes along with many powerful aftershocks from the March 11th Great Honshu quake had killed 22,000 people and destroyed the Fukushima Nuclear Plant. The 2nd highest total is 1957 when at this time of the year it had recorded a very impressive 75 major quakes.
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