M6.3 earthquake hits Kermadec Islands, New Zealand
Image credit: TW/SAM, Google
A strong earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.3 hit the Kermadec Islands, New Zealand at 00:28 UTC on January 8, 2021. The agency is reporting a depth of 224 km (139 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.3 at a depth of 182 km (113 miles). This is the second M6+ earthquake to hit this region since M6.2 on January 6.
The epicenter was located 932 km (579 miles) NE of Ngunguru and 953 km (592 miles) NE of Whangarei, New Zealand.
There are no people living within 100 km (62 miles).
There is no tsunami threat from this earthquake.

Image credit: TW/SAM, Google
Regional seismicity

Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
Published in the last 24 hours
- Strong and shallow M6.4 earthquake hits Santa Cruz Islands, Solomon Islands
- A meteorite blew a crater beside a village near Lake Titicaca in 2007, and dozens of villagers who went to see it got headaches and nausea, though tests found nothing the rock had added to the water Epicenter
- The people who pay closest attention to the weather are the ones storms have already cost the most, a study of 946 students found, with one damaging storm making little difference to how much attention a student paid, but two or more making a clear one Epicenter
- The sea is falling in Juneau, Alaska, because land freed from melted glaciers is rising about 0.6 inches a year Epicenter

