Nearly 10,000 New Zealanders have reported a 7.4 magnitude earthquake that hit north-east of Aotearoa in the early hours of Friday.
At 12:49am on Friday, the shake hit at a depth of 33km and was listed by GeoNet as happening 700km north-east of Gisborne. New Zealand's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) put it as being south of the Kermadec Islands. It was deemed "weak" by GeoNet.
About 20 minutes after the quake, NEMA released an advisory saying agencies were assessing if there was tsunami risk to New Zealand. It asked those in coastal areas to listen to radio, social media or television for updates, listen to local authorities, stay out of the water, stay off the beach or shore areas, not go sightseeing and share information with others.
Another update at about 1:37am said there was no tsunami threat to the country.
"NEMA has assessed the information with the assistance of science advisors. Based on current information, the initial assessment is that the earthquake is unlikely to have caused a tsunami that will affect New Zealand."
However, it did say at 1:53am that coastal areas may "experience strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore".
Waikato Civil Defence said just before 6am that the earthquake "still could cause strong currents so stay out of the water on the east coast this morning".
Since the large quake, there have been multiple aftershocks. While these have been deemed "unnoticeable" by GeoNet, some people have reported feeling them. Most have been around magnitude 5.
As of 5:30am on Friday, 8907 people have reported feeling the earthquake, with many describing it as a "light" shake. Some said it was "extreme" or "severe". Many of the reports came from people on the east coast of the North Island as well as in Wellington.
Despite the time of night, social media was flooded with comments.
"What was that??!!!," said one person.
"That was a long giggly earthquake," said another.
"That quake was enough to wake me up in Wellington, how're y'all on the east coast and BoP? 7.4 is decent, even if it is way off the coast of NZ," added a third.
It's not the first large shake this week. On Tuesday, a 5.1 magnitude quake hit just off shore in the eastern Bay of Plenty. That was described by GeoNet as "strong".
