A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck off New Zealand's northern coast

A A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit the waters south of the Kermadec Islands on Friday.The New Zealand archipelago in the Pacific Ocean has yet to report any damage or casualties, officials said.

The United States Geological Survey, which records seismic activity around the world, indicated that the quake struck at 9:09 p.m. local time (9:09 GMT). Its core was located at a depth of 89 km.

(You can also read: Strong shaking in Colombia: the epicenter of the earthquake was in Santander).

The cities closest to the epicenter of the earthquake are the Bay Area Hicks BayLocated about 583 kilometers from the epicenter, and the city Wakadane671 kilometers.

The Kermadec Islands, located between New Zealand and Tonga, are uninhabited except for personnel at the permanent base on Raoul Island, which houses a weather and radio station, north of the main New Zealand islands.

New Zealand sits on a fault line between the Pacific and Oceania tectonic plates and records about 14,000 earthquakes each year, of which 100 to 150 are perceptibly powerful.

(New earthquake in Colombia this Thursday: The earthquake was in the east of the country).

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When is an earthquake considered 'dangerous'?

As explained by the Colombian Geographical Service (SGC).“Danger” of an earthquakeThis type of event refers to the potential effects that a particular area may have, depending on many factors such as size, epicenter depth, distance to the epicenter, local geography, and population density. area, as well as the quality of buildings and infrastructure.

Magnitude is the term used to describe the amount of energy released by an earthquake at the point of origin. Experts obtain this data after analyzing the seismic record, and it is defined on an open scale that goes up to 10.0 for earthquakes of tectonic origin (this is a universal scale).

Depth, on the other hand, is the distance between the location inside the Earth where the earthquake originates (the source, hypocenter, or seismic focus) and the surface of the Earth where that energy is released (the epicenter).

It is measured in kilometers. “Depending on the depth of the hypocenter, earthquakes can be divided into three categories: shallow, 70 km deep; intermediate, 70 to 300 km deep; and deep, greater than 300 km,” SGC.

In this way, the effects that an earthquake can have on the infrastructure of a place and, therefore, on people depend, among others, on the relationship between its size and depth. “The higher the magnitude and the lower the depth, the greater the impact. For this reason, depth must be taken into account when measuring the potential impact of an earthquake,” notes the Colombian Geological Service.

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*with EFE