What's happening at Matata??

What's going to happen at Matata in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand?

This coastal settlement sits on the volcanic zone that runs from the Pacific ocean down and into the middle of the North Island of New Zealand. Off shore is White Island, an active volcano that is showing signs of increased activity. Matata has been hit by a swarm of small earthquakes that have been going on for over a month. Something is stirring down below, but what? Is a new volcano going to erupt through the ground? A new caldera maybe? Or is the land here being pulled apart and the earthquakes are the moans and groans of the earth being streched thinner and thinner? Or will it just all die down and nothing will happen?

Here is the current list of earthquakes that have struck Matata in the last 3 weeks (kindly supplied by geonet.org.nz which lists all the current earthquakes in NZ. As you can see, there are quite a few............... They don't call us the Shaky Isles for nothing.

http://www.geonet.org.nz/recent_quakes.html


Magnitude: 3.1 Depth: 2 km
10 km north of Matata, details...

2721835 NZST: Sun, Apr 08 2007 10:20 pm
Magnitude: 2.8 Depth: 2 km
10 km north of Matata, details...

2721346 NZST: Sat, Apr 07 2007 10:28 pm
Magnitude: 4.4 Depth: 110 km
20 km south-east of White Island, details...

2721292 NZST: Sat, Apr 07 2007 8:00 pm
Magnitude: 2.9 Depth: 2 km
10 km north of Matata, details...

2721266 NZST: Sat, Apr 07 2007 6:42 pm
Magnitude: 2.9 Depth: 2 km
Within 5 km of Matata, details...

2720838 NZST: Fri, Apr 06 2007 8:26 pm
Magnitude: 3.4 Depth: 1 km
Within 5 km of Matata, details...

2720091 NZST: Thu, Apr 05 2007 6:45 am
Magnitude: 3.1 Depth: 2 km
Within 5 km of Matata, details...

2719368 NZST: Tue, Apr 03 2007 4:15 pm
Magnitude: 2.9 Depth: 2 km
Within 5 km of Matata, details...

2719175 NZST: Tue, Apr 03 2007 5:24 am
Magnitude: 3.8 Depth: 2 km
Within 5 km of Matata, details...

2718273 NZST: Sun, Apr 01 2007 5:12 am
Magnitude: 3.0 Depth: 5 km
Within 5 km of Matata, details...

2718270 NZST: Sun, Apr 01 2007 5:01 am
Magnitude: 3.2 Depth: 6 km
Within 5 km of Matata, details...

2717779 NZST: Sat, Mar 31 2007 2:25 am
Magnitude: 2.8 Depth: 5 km
Within 5 km of Matata, details...

2717526 NZST: Fri, Mar 30 2007 1:56 pm
Magnitude: 3.0 Depth: 5 km
Within 5 km of Matata, details...

2717519 NZST: Fri, Mar 30 2007 1:43 pm
Magnitude: 3.5 Depth: 2 km
Within 5 km of Matata, details...

2717514 NZST: Fri, Mar 30 2007 1:31 pm
Magnitude: 4.1 Depth: 6 km
Within 5 km of Matata, details...

2717406 NZST: Fri, Mar 30 2007 8:12 am
Magnitude: 3.3 Depth: 3 km
10 km north of Matata, details...

2716719 NZST: Wed, Mar 28 2007 9:12 pm
Magnitude: 3.0 Depth: 5 km
Within 5 km of Matata, details...

2715666 NZST: Mon, Mar 26 2007 2:19 pm
Magnitude: 3.7 Depth: 5 km
10 km north of Matata, details...

2715493 NZST: Mon, Mar 26 2007 5:58 am
Magnitude: 3.2 Depth: 10 km
20 km north of Reporoa, details...

2715030 NZST: Sun, Mar 25 2007 7:46 am
Magnitude: 3.6 Depth: 5 km
10 km north of Matata, details...

2714769 NZST: Sat, Mar 24 2007 7:44 pm
Magnitude: 3.4 Depth: 5 km
10 km north of Matata, details...

2712934 NZST: Wed, Mar 21 2007 1:49 am
Magnitude: 3.6 Depth: 5 km
10 km north-east of Matata, details...