Two quakes rattle central North Island

The earthquakes struck 5km west of Taihape. Photo / GeoNet

The central North Island has been rattled by two light earthquakes this morning.

GeoNet reported a 3.2 quake struck 5km west of Taihape at 7.41am . The quake was just 13km deep.

The second quake was felt nine minutes later. It struck in the same location but was 19km deep and a weaker magnitude 2.5.

Last week the volcanic alert level for Ruapehu was increased from level 1 to level 2 because of an increase in gas from the crater lake.