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'Ground was shaking': Quake strikes Marlborough, shakes both sides of Cook Strait

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Sat, 30 May 2026, 1:52pm
The 4.7-magnitude quake struck an area in Marlborough, about 15km east of Seddon, just before 11am. Image / GeoNet
The 4.7-magnitude quake struck an area in Marlborough, about 15km east of Seddon, just before 11am. Image / GeoNet

'Ground was shaking': Quake strikes Marlborough, shakes both sides of Cook Strait

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Sat, 30 May 2026, 1:52pm

People on both sides of Cook Strait experienced mid-morning shake, with a shallow earthquake striking Marlborough. 

According to GeoNet, the 4.7-magnitude earthquake struck an area about 15km east of Seddon just before 11am. 

GeoNet estimated the quake’s depth to be about 12km. 

More than 1200 people reported feeling the quake on the geohazard website, stretching from Christchurch in the south to as far north as New Plymouth. 

Marlborough is one of New Zealand’s most seismically active regions, with Seddon – about 25km southeast of Blenheim – sitting near a pinch point where the Pacific Plate and the Australian Plate meet. 

Responding to a post on Facebook group Vic Deals about the quake, people across the Wellington region recalled the moment they noticed the shaking begin. 

The 4.7-magnitude quake struck an area in Marlborough, about 15km east of Seddon, just before 11am. Image / GeoNetThe 4.7-magnitude quake struck an area in Marlborough, about 15km east of Seddon, just before 11am. Image / GeoNet 

“My daughter did came to me and said the ground was shaking,” one person wrote. 

“Felt in Levin I thought she was being silly.” 

Another person said they felt shakes in Upper Hutt, but “wasn’t quite sure if it was” an earthquake to begin. 

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