A magnitude 3.8 aftershock has hit Wellington after a "sharp" and "nasty" jolt rattled the city on Sunday morning. 

GeoNet reported light shaking in Cook Strait at 2.23pm today and it confirmed it was an aftershock from yesterday's magnitude 5.7 earthquake. 

It was felt mostly in Wellington and the lower North Island, GeoNet said. 

Several buildings in the city have been checked after yesterday's larger earthquake, which was the strongest recorded in New Zealand since a magnitude 5.7 on September 20, 2023, near Geraldine in Canterbury.

One apartment building was evacuated but this has since been deemed a false alarm, triggered by one resident who called emergency services about a "physical disturbance" in their apartment. 

David McGuinness - managing director of Willis Bond, the developer of Victoria Lane Apartments - said the inspection found no issues and no other residents raised concerns. 

He said the building performed exactly as expected from a base-isolated building "with gold standard seismic resilience". 

The evacuation of a Wellington apartment block has been deemed a false alarm. 

Sunday's earthquake was also the latest in a recent series of quakes in Cook Strait, which included a 4.8 shake on August 5 and a 5.0 event last Tuesday, just northeast of Seddon. 

More than 37,000 people reported feeling it, according to the GeoNet website. It was detected as far north as Auckland and as far south as Christchurch. 

A magnitude 4.8 earthquake also struck late last night in southeastern Hawke's Bay, about 5km from Pōrangahau. 

It had a shallow depth of 16km and was considered a strong quake by GNS Science. 

The GeoNet website showed more than 2000 people across the central and lower North Island reported feeling the shake about 11.20pm.

There were eight aftershocks between 12.05am and 4.05am, the strongest being a magnitude 3.3 quake just before 3am. 

- NZ Herald