It is "highly unlikely" anyone would have felt a strong quake that rattled an offshore area east of the country this morning.
GNS seismologist John Ristau said this morning's magnitude-5.0 quake was centered 495km north-east of Gisborne, at a depth of 10km, and struck just after 10am.
It was not likely anyone in the Gisborne area would have felt the quake, he said.
"If it was a closer to shore... of course it would be a fairly sizeable earthquake that a lot of people would feel. But that far off shore it's highly unlikely that anyone would feel it."
Mr Ristau said there was no tsunami threat as a result of the tremor.
Earlier today, two small quakes were felt on the east of the North Island.
The first woke a handful of people near Whakatane about 1.15am.
The magnitude 2.8 earthquake was 8km deep and classed as "light" by GeoNet.
A weaker quake hit about 20km west of Pongaroa at 6am.
It had a magnitude of 3.3 but was 28km deep.