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Strong quake shakes central New Zealand
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-15 09:34

A magnitude 6.4 earthquake shook central New Zealand early Monday, waking people and tossing items from shelves but causing no injuries, emergency services reported.

The quake was centred in the Tasman Sea, 160 kilometres northwest of the capital, Wellington. The offshore quake did not generate a tsunami in the sea, which lies to the west of New Zealand, separating it from Australia.

Emergency services said they had received some reports of items falling from shelves as the quake rocked buildings across a wide area.

Police reported that the temblor was felt from New Plymouth on North Island's west coast and across central New Zealand to Christchurch on South Island's east coast.

New Zealand sits above an area of the Earth's crust where two tectonic plates are colliding and records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year. Only about 150 are felt by residents, and fewer than 10 a year cause damage.



 
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