M3.8 Earthquake — COOK STRAIT, NEW ZEALAND was recorded by Global Incident Tracker on Thursday, 3 September 2026 at 07:50 UTC. The event is classified as a earthquake incident with a severity rating of Minor, and was detected through the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC).
A magnitude 3.8 earthquake was detected in the COOK STRAIT, NEW ZEALAND region at a depth of 377.4 km, reported by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.
Where this happened
The incident is located in New Zealand (Oceania), whose capital is Wellington. Historically, New Zealand is most affected by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods. You can follow every incident recorded in this country, updated live, on the New Zealand incident tracker.
Approximate coordinates of the reported event are -40.175°, 173.229°. The marker on the map above shows this position; for news-derived reports the location reflects the place named in media coverage and may represent a district or city rather than an exact site.
Understanding earthquake events
Sudden ground shaking from tectonic movement, measured on the moment-magnitude scale. Magnitude describes released energy on a logarithmic scale, so a magnitude 6 releases roughly 32 times more energy than a magnitude 5. Shallow earthquakes are usually far more destructive than deep ones of the same magnitude, and building quality is typically the single largest factor in how many people are hurt.
How severity is rated
Global Incident Tracker rates every event on a four-step scale — Minor, Moderate, Severe and Extreme — derived from the source signal: earthquake magnitude, official GDACS alert colour, or the volume of independent media reporting for news-derived incidents. This event is currently rated Minor. Ratings can change as more information becomes available, and a rating is a monitoring signal rather than an official government assessment.
Safety guidance for earthquake situations
- During shaking: drop to hands and knees, cover your head and neck under sturdy furniture, and hold on until it stops.
- Do not run outside while the ground is moving — most injuries happen from falling debris at exits.
- Expect aftershocks and stay out of visibly damaged buildings.
- After shaking stops, check for gas smells before using switches or flames, and prefer SMS over voice calls to keep networks clear.
- Follow only official instructions from local authorities and emergency services — this page is a monitoring record, not an emergency alert.
Data and verification
This record was generated automatically from the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) and de-duplicated against our archive. Early reports for any incident can be revised: locations get refined, magnitudes are recalculated and impact figures change as assessments arrive. We deliberately do not publish casualty numbers unless an official source states them. The original source report is linked at the top of this page.
Keep watching the situation on our live world incident map, browse every earthquakes we track on the Earthquake tracker, or see today's global picture on the incidents today page.
Timeline and sources
Officially recorded
An official record exists from EMSC (European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre). That confirms the event was recorded; figures quoted from news reports are not confirmed by it.
How statuses are decided · the number of reports is never treated as confirmation.
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· received · event time 3 Sep 2026, 07:50 UTCFirst report Official agency record
First recorded from EMSC (European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre).
Times are when this site received each report, in UTC; the event time is shown where the source gave one. Copies of one syndicated story count as one report.
Conditions at the time
7.8 mm of rain fell that day, and the temperature peaked at 15°C, and winds reached 62 km/h.
Weather reanalysis for this location and date via Open-Meteo.