The epicentre of the earthquake was 123km southwest of the town of Pijijiapan in Mexico.

The threat to New Zealand of a tsunami from a massive earthquake in Mexico has passed, Civil Defence says. Some waves hit the Chatham Islands and the East Cape on Saturday after an 8.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Mexico on Friday.

Civil Defence issued a beach and marine tsunami warning for parts of New Zealand after the quake. It cancelled that warning about 11.30am on Saturday.

There was no land threat, and no evacuations were necessary.

The tsunami warning beach and marine for parts of NZ following the 8.2 Mexico earthquake has been cancelled. — MCDEM (@NZcivildefence) September 8, 2017

The warning had applied to Chatham Islands, Pegasus Bay, the northern coasts of Hawke's Bay and East Cape only.

The largest wave, of 35-40cm, was recorded at the Chatham Islands. Measurements from tidal gauges around the country showed maximum wave amplitudes of 15-25cm.

While Civil Defence didn't expect any further larger waves to occur, there was still the possibility of waves less than 20cm, and coastal areas would likely experience unusual, strong currents and surges lasting for several more hours.

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The first information about the beach and marine warning came as a tweet from the official Civil Defence twitter account at 11.10pm on Friday.

The first tsunami activity is expected to reach areas around Chatham Islands and East Cape at approximately 7.00am on 9 September. — MCDEM (@NZcivildefence) September 8, 2017

The quake struck off the coast of Chiapas, Mexico, about 4.49pm (NZ time) on Friday. It triggered waves as high as 0.7m in Mexico, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said.

Buoys set up off the coast of Mexico - near where the quake occurred - by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were in tsunami event mode on Friday evening.