A magnitude 6.7 earthquake off the South Island of New Zealand has raised concerns about the potential for a tsunami.<\/p>\n
Thousands of people on the mainland felt the earthquake, which occurred Tuesday at 2:42 PM (NZDT) at a depth of 12 km, roughly 160 kilometers northwest of the Snares Islands.<\/p>\n
The National Emergency Management Agency of New Zealand advised locals to avoid beaches in the surrounding areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cResidents of Southland and Fiordland should stay away from beach and marine areas as strong and unusual currents may present a danger,\u201d the alert read.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrong currents and surges can injure and drown people. There is a danger to swimmers, surfers, people fishing, and anyone in or near the water close to shore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople in or near the sea in the following areas should move out of the water, off beaches and shore areas and away from harbours, marinas, rivers and estuaries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Authorities have advised locals to leave the area on their own \u201cimmediately from all places near the coast where the earthquake was felt either for longer than a minute OR was strong enough that it was hard to stand,\u201d even though there isn\u2019t an official evacuation alert in effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn these areas a tsunami may have been generated and may arrive quickly, so evacuate immediately to the nearest high ground, out of all tsunami evacuation zones, or as far inland as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later Tuesday night, there should be less chance of hazardous and uncommon current<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A magnitude 6.7 earthquake off the South Island of New Zealand has raised concerns about the potential for a tsunami. Thousands of people on the mainland felt… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t