Why are there so many earthquakes?

Less than two weeks after the tragic earthquake that has killed more than 40,000 people in Turkey and Syria, another shake has rocked New Zealand. Wednesday's'widely felt' tremor, around magnitude 6, jolted both New Zealand's islands, although thankfully there's been no immediate reports of damage or injury. Earthquakes are happening all the time, from the ones too small to even be noticed to the devastating high magnitude quakes that lead to thousands of fatalities. But its occurrence so soon after the disaster in Turkey and Syria begs the question - could they be linked? Here, MailOnline takes a closer look at today's event and whether it's related to the catastrophic tremor in the Middle East last week.