Mw 6.6 Kermadec Islands, New Zealand

On 2 March 2022 a strong earthquake occurred at the Kermadec Islands, New Zealand at a depth of 40 km. The seismic event occurred at 12:52:09 UTC and had an estimated moment magnitude (Mw) 6.6.

After 25 February larger seismic activity was not anticipated until about 3 March due to Earth's close conjunction with Venus and Mars and the absence of additional critical planetary geometry. On 2 March an Earth-Mercury-Saturn conjunction occurred. As a result larger seismic activity was anticipated to occur 3-5 March. The strong tremor at the Kermadec Islands occurred somewhat early (at the time of the conjunction) when lunar geometry started to peak reaching index 17, partially due to a lunar conjunction with Saturn, the Sun (New Moon) and Jupiter. See also the Telegram posts below.

#MoonJupiter #MoonSaturn #NewMoon

Earth-Mercury-Saturn      2022-03-02, 16:29:55  318°41'33"

Earth-Moon-Mercury        2022-02-28, 21:29:59  316°11'13"
Earth-Moon-Saturn         2022-03-01,  1:23:07  318°30'24"
Earth-Moon-Sun            2022-03-02, 16:51:57  341°46'49"
Earth-Moon-Jupiter        2022-03-02, 20:43:27  344°01'01"
					

SSGI depiction of planetary (PG) and lunar (LG) geometry