At 19:28 on the 4th March 2021 a magnitude 8.1 earthquake occurred in the Kermadec Islands region. This follows two other strong events in the region today, an M7.3 event which occurred further south close to the North Island of New Zealand (see here) and an M7.4 event that also occurred in the Kermadec Islands region (see here).
New Zealands National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) have issued a statement advising people on the east coast of the north island to move to higher ground. The earthquake had a depth of 10 km, shallow earthquakes like this present a tsunami threat.
The event was recorded by seismic stations worldwide, including stations in the Irish Nation Seismic Network (INSN) (see figure below).
The earthquake occurred along the eastern margin of the Australia plate where it meets the Pacific plate. The convergence of the two plates means the region is prone to large events such as this (there have been 15 earthquakes with magnitude greater than 7.5 since 1900).
For more information see the following:
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us7000dflf/executive
https://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=955088
