EARTHQUAKE SHOCK

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28767, 12 December 1958, Page 14

EARTHQUAKE SHOCK

Centre Was Deep Under Sea (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, December 11. Close checking and crosschecking of records today at the Seismological Observatory, Wellington, indicated that the disturbance which caused the' widely-felt earthquate last night was about 320 miles from Wellington. The superintendent, of the observatory, Mr R. C. Hayes, gave this figure tonight as the distance of the epicentre—the point on the earth’s surface vertically above the centre of the disturbance. , . It was a deep earth movement, probably about 190 miles below sea level, he said. The exact position of the epicentre was not yet determined, but it seemed likely that it was somewhere at sea. Mr Hayes’s estimates suggest that the epicentre was probably abreast of Gisborne or a little north of that. The depth of the earth movement partly explains why the earthquake was felt over such a wide area, and, apparently, most strongly in the Napier-Hastings area. Mr Hayes said the absence of after-shocks was characteristic of a deep disturbance. Shallow disturbances Usually produced a series of after-shocks. .