New Zealand experienced 32,828 earthquakes in 2016. That is a record. There were also 80,000 landslides, two tsunamis and a volcanic eruption. It was literally a “groundbreaker.” In 2011, the biggest prior year, there were 29,000 quakes.
“You’d be hard pressed to find someone who wasn’t impacted, in some way, by earthquakes in New Zealand this year,” wrote Sara McBride, a GeoNet Blogger.
“Normally New Zealand only gets one quake a year above a magnitude seven, so when a 7.1 hit the northeast coast in September causing minimal damage on land,” many thought that the country had met its quota.
But then the devastating Kaikoura 7.8 earthquake hit two months later. “In two-and-a-half minutes, the earthquake moved across numerous faults, its seismic energy pooling and then overflowing onto one fault after the other, moving similar to the famous ‘Bucket Fountain’ in Wellington,” McBride said.
“Along the way, the earthquake ruptured faults, tore through the earth and raised the seabed off Kaikoura. Two people died and hundreds were displaced from homes and businesses. Landslips blocked State Highway 1 access to Kaikoura while the KiwiRail track was lifted and thrown, in some places into the ocean.
What will put that quake in the record books was not its size, but its unique rupture process and the slow-slip earthquakes it triggered.
“We had only rarely seen an earthquake behave quite like this one…New Zealand breaks new ground again!” McBride said.
New Zealand experienced 2 earthquakes with magnitudes over 7.0, 10 between 6.0-6.9, 122 of magnitude 5.0-5.9 and more than 30,000 smaller ones.
Those who are watching the end-time prophecies will recognize that an increase in seismic activity is one of the signs Jesus pointed to when he said, “And there shall be… earthquakes in divers places.” Matthew 24:7.