Gulf earthquake swarm reawaken by a magnitude 3.4.

The M3.4 earthquake occurred just to the north of the Hauraki gulf associated with the ongoing earthquake swarm off Whangarei. It was reported felt in Warkworth and Great Barrier Island. It is the equal 8th largest quake in the sequence with the largest being a M4.1 in February 2019.

Location of today's M3.4 earthquake and features of interest

That now brings the total number of quakes in the sequence to 126 over the last 6 & half years. Before the swarm began, there was no known fault line in that location, 35km east of Whangarei Heads. The nearest known fault is the Whangarei Harbour fault, 25km to the southwest running through Bream Bay.

The swarm is also in the same location as a major New Zealand international communication cable and the Niagara shipwreck. The communication cable is the newly commissioned Southern Cross NEXT which is the largest capacity data link between Sydney, Auckland, and Los Angeles at 15,857 km. The Niagara ship was sunk on 19 June 1940 by a German marine mine and is still believed to be carrying up to 1000 to 1500 tonnes of oil and bars of gold.