1 An earthquake rattled the mountainous, sparsely populated East Cape area of New Zealand's North Island shortly before noon on Monday. No damage or injuries were reported.
2 New Zealand is in one of the most seismically active regions of the world, where minor quakes are felt almost every day.
3 'It was a bit of a thump, that's about all,' said a police office in Whakatane, one of the few sizeable town in the area.
4 At Taupo, another town in the region, Det. Gary Lockyer said the quake was not serious, but went on for about 40 seconds.
5 Seismologists at the Australian Geological Survey Organization in Canberra, and at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, gave the quake a preliminary Richter scale reading of 7.5, making it a major quake.
6 However, New Zealand's Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences in Wellington measured it at only 5.7, according to seismologist Warwick Smith.
7 (AP-aap-nzpa-pjs)

An earthquake rattled the mountainous , sparsely populated East Cape area of New Zealand ' s North Island shortly before noon on Monday . No damage or injuries were reported .
An earthquake rattled the mountainous ,
How big was the earthquake that rattled the mountains?