What's Shaking in Kiwiland?

[JackLuis]

Powerful 7.4 quake hits New Zealand's South Island

I hope all is well, but I fear for some of our Litizens.

"Oh my God. There is a row of shops completely demolished right in front of me," Simpson told the Stuff news website.

 

[trysail]

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2010atbj/us/us2010atbj_ciim.jpghttp://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2010atbj/us/us2010atbj_ciim_zoom.jpg

Magnitude 7.2 Quake Hits New Zealand’s South Island, USGS Says
By JoAnne Norton

Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- An earthquake with a revised magnitude of 7.2 struck New Zealand’s South Island about 4:30 a.m. local time this morning, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its website.

The quake, centered about 31 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of Christchurch, caused damage to roads and structures, police said, according to Radio New Zealand. Aftershocks have been felt, the radio station said.

The tremor was felt as far away as Greymouth, about 166 kilometers away on the western side of the island opposite Christchurch, and in Dunedin, about 309 kilometers away, according to the radio station.

Orion New Zealand Ltd., the electric utility, said power was out to most areas of Christchurch, Radio New Zealand said.

 

[3113]

Photos!

Here are some before and after photos. Holy crap!

Will all Litizens in that region please check in? We're worried about you.

 

[trysail]

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=aITfATTkDINI



New Zealand City, Rocked by Quake, Under Curfew as Storm Nears
By Jason Scott and Tracy Withers

Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- New Zealand’s second-largest city, Christchurch, was placed under night curfew as a storm threatens to exacerbate an estimated NZ$2 billion ($1.44 billion) of damage caused when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the area.

A state of emergency was declared after the quake struck at 4:35 a.m. local time yesterday, cutting power, damaging roads, rupturing sewer lines and water pipes and ripping facades off buildings. Christchurch, suffering aftershocks, is now bracing for possible flooding as gale force winds and heavy rains are expected to reach the city today, the government said.

“It’s a miracle no one lost their life,” New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said as he inspected the damage yesterday. One person received serious injuries when the temblors struck.

The quake comes as New Zealand, whose snowcapped peaks and verdant valleys formed the backdrop to the Academy Award-winning “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, struggles to rebound from its worst recession in 30 years. The country, the biggest global exporter of dairy products and lamb, is affected by about 15,000 earthquakes each year, according to GeoNet, an earthquake- monitoring site.

“It’s unbelievable, it’s like a warzone,” Christchurch resident Tracey Chambers said in a phone interview yesterday. “We’ve got so many big, brick historic buildings here and a lot have caved in, including the restaurants and bars. If the earthquake had happened a few hours earlier, hundreds would have been killed.”

The quake struck about 55 kilometers (34 miles) west- northwest of the city and at a depth of 12 kilometers.

Emergency Declared
Christchurch City Council declared a state of local emergency and said it is assessing damage to buildings in case evacuations are needed. The hospital is operating on generator power, the council said in a statement. Christchurch International Airport was closed yesterday until 1:30 p.m. local time.

“There would not be a house in the city that has escaped damage in some way,” Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said at a televised news conference yesterday. “We have been extremely lucky as a nation there have been no fatalities,” Civil Defense Minister John Carter said.

The quake was probably the worst to hit New Zealand for 80 years because it was a “bull’s-eye on a major city,” Warwick Smith, from the Institute of Geological Nuclear Sciences, told TVNZ today. Christchurch is home to about 348,000 people, according to Statistics New Zealand.

Port Problems
Damage at Lyttelton Port Co., which handles coal exports about 12 kilometers southeast of Christchurch, will cost “millions” of dollars to repair, Chief Executive Peter Davie said in a phone interview. The damage, mainly to paving and flat surfaces, will take months to fix, he said.

Telecom Corp. of New Zealand, the nation’s biggest phone company, said its infrastructure appears to have escaped major damage.

“Things have actually stood up pretty well from Telecom’s point of view,” company spokesman Ian Bonnar said in a phone interview from Auckland yesterday. “The landline services are pretty much intact.”

Power was restored to about 77 percent of Christchurch by 12 p.m. yesterday, the government said. About 10 percent of the city was expected to be without power overnight, it said.

Cars Crushed
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the event didn’t pose a tsunami threat.

New Zealand’s most powerful recorded earthquake occurred in January 1855 with an estimated magnitude of 8.2, according to GeoNet. It shifted vertically about 5,000 square kilometers of land.

Several aftershocks followed yesterday’s quake, including one of magnitude 5.7 at 4:53 a.m., the U.S. Geological Survey said on its website. The strength of the first quake was revised to 7.2 and later to 7.0 from an initial report of 7.4 by the USGS.

Shaking was felt as far west as Greymouth, about 166 kilometers away, and in Dunedin, about 309 kilometers away, according to Radio New Zealand.

Damage was reported on the southern part of North Island, home to New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, and Auckland, its largest city.

The last quake to cause casualties in the nation hit in December 2007, when buildings in downtown Gisborne collapsed. Eleven people were injured and one died of a heart attack, GeoNet said.

New Zealand is starting to benefit from a rebounding global economy and is poised to grow 3 percent this year, compared with a 1.6 percent contraction in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund.

 

[Handley_Page]

I guess that's one of the problems of being on the Pacific Rim.

 

[ishtat]

I spoke to a former employee this morning who now lives in Christchurch. She told me approximately 500 buildings severely damaged another 350 will have to be demolished. Damage to surface structures estimated at $2.5Billion but the biggest problem is damage to underground water and sewage systems.

No one killed, 2 seriously injured.

Most of the buildings damaged are pre 1931 structures the year of the Napier Earthquake which killed 260 people. Since then NZ has had very strict building codes with respect to Earthquake resistance.

She said the N,Zedders were coping pretty well in their usual stoic way.

The only thing which excites a KIWI is a rugby match. (They play Australia next weekend)

But this was a big hit for a nation of only 4.5 million people.

 

[trysail]

http://www.mdnautical.com/foreign/new_zealand.gif​

 

[JackLuis]

Not again!

New Zealand extends emergency following aftershock

The 5.0-magnitude aftershock struck just below the surface at 7:49 am (1949 GMT Tuesday) sending frightened residents rushing into the streets, cutting power supplies and bringing down loose material from already damaged buildings.

The latest quake was just one kilometre (half a mile) deep and much closer to the city centre than Saturday's quake, which caused billions of dollars of damage, seismologists said.

Oh sugar, the rift is migrating up. Is the end near? Inquiring minds, ect, ect, ect.

 

[Dreamliner]

Quakes are normal here, however, there are parts of the country that do not exeperience them and Christchurch happens to be one where they only normally get "small" quakes.

This one is an unkown, until now, fault line that is 16,000 years old. Just got covered up by alluvial deposits. It has brought the faultline to the surface and the plates have separated by 4 metres horizontal and 1.5 metres vertical, it is 22 km long.

A huge wakeup call for us as we have watched the pacific ring of fire bypass us for a number of years!

 

[3113]

Oh sugar, the rift is migrating up. Is the end near?

We've still got a year and a few months to go (or so says the movie 2012). The tectonic plates are just gearing up for their wild shift about the globe.

I am looking forward to moving up north and becoming part of the New San Francisco.

 

[TxRad]

We've still got a year and a few months to go (or so says the movie 2012). The tectonic plates are just gearing up for their wild shift about the globe.

I am looking forward to moving up north and becoming part of the New San Francisco.

You have no sense of direction there 3. California as a state is moving north so you'll never catch San Fran. Also California as a whole is slipping under the Sierra mountains. So, not only is California making the country narrower, it's making it taller.

And by the way, as California goes north, it's pulling Baja along with it. 20, 000 years from now, Tijuana will replace LA. Of course by then, Hawaii will be part of the Japaneses Islands.

I wonder how all that is going to effect immigration laws. The people stay put but the country moves.

 

[3113]

You have no sense of direction there 3....

Do so! As you said, we're going North, hence L.A. will soon reach the same spot as what was once San Francisco, thus, becoming the "New" San Francisco. According to the movie 2012, that should take only about six months or so.

On my way up there, I hope to start a vineyard just as soon as we get to the same spot as what was once Napa. Here is me picking grapes in September of 2012.


http://www.magazineart.org/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=20702&g2_serialNumber=3

 

[trysail]

We've still got a year and a few months to go (or so says the movie 2012). The tectonic plates are just gearing up for their wild shift about the globe.

I am looking forward to moving up north and becoming part of the New San Francisco.

If you have not already done so, you would enjoy reading Simon Winchester's A Crack In The Edge Of The World: America and The Great California Earthquake of 1906 ( N.Y., N.Y. 2005 ).


You likely recognize Winchester as the author of The Professor and The Madman and The Meaning of Everything— which are fascinating books on the Oxford English Dictionary.


Winchester is a polymath. In addition to these best-sellers, he was trained ( at Oxford, naturally ) and earned a living as a geologist. Other geologically oriented books authored by him are Krakatoa and The Map That Changed The World.