A “sharp” and “nasty” early morning quake in the Cook Strait has left Wellingtonians rattled but does not appear to have caused any injuries or damage.

The magnitude-5.7 earthquake struck 25km west of the city, with residents reporting a loud rumble, rattling windows and crashing sounds.

“Asleep this morning and just as I woke to go [to the] toilet, BOOM, it hit bang on [at] 5.08am,” said Wellington’s Donna Woru.

“I heard things in my room shaking and the chimes in my kitchen rattling and I was scared. It honestly felt like it hit right outside my house, it was that strong.”

Over 38,000 people reported they felt the strong earthquake that struck Wellington at 5am this morning on GeoNet.

The earthquake was the strongest recorded in New Zealand since a magnitude-5.7 event just over a year ago on September 20, 2023 near Geraldine in Canterbury.

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

“Sleeping on the first floor of five in a concrete hostel,” said Sheryl McFarlane. “It was a really scary experience with everything shaking and rolling.

“I wondered if those were [my] last moments at 5.09am.”

“I felt it, the loud rumbling, then the whole building shook,” said Alanna McCabe. “I was asleep. The noise of it coming woke me, then the heavy shaking.”

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

Shona Conroy, from Moturoa in New Plymouth, described it as a “rocking quake, gentle side-to-side” which lasted for nearly a minute.

Suzanne Levesque said: “We’re staying in a hotel and felt the long, loud rumble, then an even louder boom, [a] crashing sound - it was super-strong.

“Our hotel is very earthquake-ready so nothing was shaken to the ground; everything has been bolted down. I now realise why.”

“So much for sleeping in,” said one person on the Kāpiti Coast. “5.8-[magnitude] rattled me good.”

“Was crazy. My youngest woke up first in her cot, I almost ran to get my kids,” a resident said on Facebook. “You could definitely hear the whole house shaking. It started off as just a small shake, then out of no where [sic] this huge shake starts.”

“I’m in Wellington City and it literally shook me out of bed,” another person said. “Definitely the most scariest [sic] shake I’ve been in.”

Despite the strong shake, there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Councils, emergency services and utilities were out at first light conducting checks. There have been no electricity or water outages. State highways, trains and Wellington Airport are unaffected.

The National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) said there was no tsunami threat from the quake.

Wellington Regional Emergency Management Office (WREMO) regional manager Jeremy Holmes said the quake was a “decent shake” which could have caused minor damage.

“We encourage people to check their properties and report any issues to their landlord or local council,” he said.

“This is a timely reminder that earthquakes can happen anytime. The correct action to take in an earthquake: drop, cover and hold. If you are in bed, stay, cover and hold.”

The shaky strait

The Cook Strait has sourced some other major earthquakes in recent years - notably 2013′s “doublet” of 6.5 and 6.6 events near Marlborough.

The strait lies at the junction of the South and North Island fault zones, and until recently, scientists haven’t had a clear picture of how the fault systems within the area interact.

Mapping has since revealed a myriad of small and large faults in the strait - it’s not yet clear which one this morning’s struck on - while other well-known faults like the Wairau, and Awatere and Wellington, have been shown to extend offshore into the region.

More recently, scientists have identified “alignments” between faults in the North and South islands - such as the Wairau and Awatere faults in the south and the Ohariu and Wellington faults in the north - they think will be important for estimating the size of large future quakes in the strait.

- Additional reporting Jamie Morton.