The residents of Taupo often feel small earthquakes and last night's were no different. The two larger events, 5 minutes apart, were widely felt locally. The earthquakes were small (M2.2 and 2.1), shallow and located to the north Taupo. 125 people reported feeling the first one and 245 the second one. Small earthquakes are very common in this area and tend to cluster about the Wairakei-Tauhara and Rotokawa geothermal areas. Some also occur out in the lake area.

In the last week GeoNet has located 6 events in this area, while in the last month there has been 22 locatable earthquakes and 313 in the last year. All of them are shallow, less than 10 km deep.

Taupo, like Rotorua, Reporoa, Ngakuru and Turangi, lie within the area called the Taupo Volcanic Zone. This is an area where many large caldera volcanoes and geothermal systems are present and is also an area where small earthquakes are frequent.