2009 Dusky Sound earthquake
earthquake
A Mw 7.8 earthquake struck a remote region of Fiordland, New Zealand, on 15 July 2009 at 21:22 local time (09:22 UTC). It had an initially–reported depth of 12 km (7.5 mi), and an epicentre near Dusky Sound in Fiordland National Park, which is 160 km (99 mi) north-west of Invercargill. It was the country's largest earthquake magnitude since the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, but caused only minor damage and there were no casualties. A tsunami accompanied the event and had a maximum measured run-up of 230 cm (91 in).
Earthquake
New Zealand's Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS Science) initially measured the earthquake at ML 6.6. The United States Geological Survey's preliminary measurement was Mw 8.0 before it was revised to 7.8. It was New Zealand's biggest earthquake magnitude since the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, and equal in magnitude to the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake. The 2009 earthquake occurred after a sequence of seismic events in northern Fiordland since 1988—six earthquakes above magnitude 6.0 struck the region prior to 2009, including a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in 2003.
The hypocentre was near Resolution Island in Dusky Sound, Fiordland, at a depth that was initially reported as 12 km (7.5 mi). The earthquake was the result of shallow reverse faulting at the subduction zone of the Indo-Australian plate and Pacific plate.
“2009 Dusky Sound earthquake” enters the record as earthquake. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dusky, Sound and earthquake can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1131956. Authority coordinates are -45.721, 166.643. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2009, 1931, 2016 and 1988.
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This entry incorporates text from “2009 Dusky Sound earthquake” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.