By Katalina Siasau

A total of 118 earthquakes were detected within the Tonga region during September. Due to recently upgraded earthquake detectors, Tonga Geological Services is recording an average number of 100 earthquakes monthly.

TGS officer, Mele Manu, told Matangi Tonga today that they are now able to detect more earthquakes.

"We notice the numbers are increasing, and that is because we collect more data with our upgraded earthquake detectors."

Mele said the average number of earthquake prior to the upgrade, was 50. Now they are seeing an average of 100 earthquakes a month.

However, she noted it does not necessarily raise concerns.

"It does not mean that more earthquakes are happening, but that we are getting more data and detecting more earthquakes."

Earthquake Bulletin

In September, the TGS detected 118 earthquakes within the Tonga region between latitudes of 13.00ºS - 26.00ºS and longitudes of 170.00ºW - 178.00ºW.

None of these earthquake events caused any damages.

Their monthly Earthquake Bulletin reported the lowest magnitude was 3.2 and highest magnitude was 6.0.

One event between 6.0 - 6.9 magnitude, 16 events between 5.0 - 5.9 magnitude, 73 events between 4.0 - 4.9 magnitude, and 28 events between 3.0 - 3.9 magnitude.

There were 39 shallow events and 79 deep events.

Only one “felt event” was reported within our region (Table 1). Comparing Figure 2 and Figure 3, the events of the two pervious months, the earthquakes are relatively distributed to the depths of the subduction boundary.