A swarm of earthquakes have struck near White Island today but scientists says they do not appear to be related to the island's volcanic activity.

GNS Wairakei duty volcanologist Tony Hurst says the five earthquakes were centred about 5 kilometres from the active volcano, rather than on the island itself.

White Island crater rim at 10am today. Image: GeoNet.

'As far as we know they are near White Island rather than on White Island,” says Tony.

'But it looks as if they are not actually coming from the crater. We are still trying to look at the characteristics, but they look to be around there - rather than on the island.”

There is a science party on White Island today as part of a routine trip, and they haven't reported any noticeable change in conditions on the island, says Tony.

Five earthquakes were recorded this morning beginning at 9.25am, followed by quakes at 9.29am, 9.55am, 10.03am and 10.18am.

They ranged in intensity from 2.5 to 3.3 in intensity on the Richter scale with depths ranging from four to seven kilometres.

'It's an area that we regularly have earthquakes in,” says Tony.

'There were a few last weekend. There are quite a few earthquakes within 10km of White Island.”