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GeoNet Aotearoa New Zealand Earthquake Catalogue

The GeoNet earthquake catalogue contains the technical information of all known seismological events. The dataset includes information about the events source parameters such as hypocenter, magnitude, arrival time of seismic phases as well as velocity model used and uncertainties in the parameters.


Since the 1930's, earthquakes in the catalogue have been determined by instrumental records. Prior to that, estimates were made from oral and written records.


At present, a densified network of weak motion and strong motion sensors is used nationally to monitor events in regions that are affected by large seismic activity and volcanism. Around 20000 events are recorded every year in the catalogue. GeoNet observations and earthquake source parameters are currently used for rapid response, risk assessment and research purposes.


Overview of access tools: https://www.geonet.org.nz/data/types/eq_catalogue


This dataset is funded through https://www.geonet.org.nz/sponsors


DOI: https://doi.org/10.21420/0S8P-TZ38


Cite as:

GNS Science. (1970). New Zealand Earthquake Catalogue [Data set]. GNS Science, GeoNet. https://doi.org/10.21420/0S8P-TZ38

Simple

Alternate title

New Zealand earthquake locations and magnitudes

Date (Publication)
2015-03-03
Status
On going
Point of contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

GNS Science

info@geonet.org.nz

Point of contact
Maintenance and update frequency
Daily
Theme
  • earthquake

  • GeoNet

  • New Zealand

  • monitoring

  • seismology

  • geological hazard

  • seismic event

Classification
Unclassified
Use constraints
Copyright
Other constraints

GeoNet content is copyright GNS Science and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand License

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nz/

Use limitation

GeoNet Data Policy & Disclaimer

https://www.geonet.org.nz/policy

https://www.geonet.org.nz/disclaimer

Language
English
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information
  • Location
N
S
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Supplemental Information

Earthquakes in the catalogue prior to the twentieth century are not based on instrumental readings. These have been collated from Māori history and accounts in newspapers, books and diaries. By comparing shaking and damage reports from different towns and settlements, likely epicentres and magnitudes have been assigned. Geological evidence, such as the movement of surface faults or landsliding, can also improve the magnitude estimate, but only the very largest earthquakes leave a fault trace behind. Even once instruments started to be installed in New Zealand after 1884, there were too few of them to comprise a network that allowed earthquakes to be located. It was not until the 1930s that the locations of stations started to form a network, and not until 1942 that it was complete enough to locate some earthquakes with any confidence. Computers were first used in New Zealand to locate earthquake origins and determine magnitudes in 1964.

Distribution format
Name Version

KML

unknown

CSV

unknown

GML

3.2.1 and 2

QuakeML

unknown

GeoJSON

unknown

CAP

unknown

text

unknown

JSON

unknown

OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name

WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link

https://www.geonet.org.nz/data/types/eq_catalogue

New Zealand Earthquake Catalogue

WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link

https://www.geonet.org.nz/data/tools/FDSN

Event Service FDSN data

Metadata

File identifier
5105fdeb-f314-4d6e-8e09-bf5308278e03 XML
Metadata language
English
Character set
UTF8
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Hierarchy level name

Dataset

Date stamp
2024-04-04T15:51:51
Metadata standard name

ISO 19115:2003/19139

Metadata standard version

1.0

Metadata author
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

GNS Science

datamanagement@gns.cri.nz

Point of contact
 
 

Overviews

overview
Earthquake map

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W
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Keywords

GeoNet New Zealand earthquake geological hazard monitoring seismic event seismology

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Access to the catalogue
Read here the full details and access to the data.


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