The Opunake, New Zealand, earthquake of 5 November 1974

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Abstract
The Opunake earthquake (ML = 6.1) was centred at 39°.54S, 173°.45E, very near the Maui gas field, at a shallow depth. This is about 35 km off the SW Taranaki coast in a region where the Cape Egmont fault zone forms the western margin of the Taranaki graben. Damage due to the event was minor. The focal mechanism solution implies an equal amount of thrust and strike-slip motion, and a nearly horizontal compression-axis that trends NE-SW. The aftershock sequence (128 events with ML ⩾ 3.5 up to the end of November) was of long duration and had a high b-value of 1.35. The aftershock epicentres occupied an area of about 15 X 10 km. The main event is somewhat unusual in that it was, for its magnitude, a very compact event (radius of equivalent circular dislocation 6 km) with a large displacement (0.17 m) and high stressdrop (1.2 X 106 N/m2) .

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