7.4 Quake strikes New Zealand

[PlutonianEmpire]

I looked, and couldn't find any threads on it, so...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100903/ts_nm/us_quake_newzealand

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A strong earthquake of 7.4 magnitude hit New Zealand, just 4 miles southeast of Christchurch, in the middle of the night local time, the U.S. Geological Survey said Friday.

There were no immediate tsunami warnings. USGS earlier said the quake measured 7.3 magnitude.

The center of the quake was 41 miles deep and it struck at 1635 GMT.

Christchurch, on the east coast of the South Island, is New Zealand's second-largest city with a population of about 342,000 people.

"No destructive widespread tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

Ummm... How bad would the damage be? Is 41 miles too deep for significant damage?

 

[Heretic_Cata]

How many sheep died ?

 

[Tani Coyote]

Well then, let's hope for the safety of Ainwood and all our other resident New Zealanders!

Call it a cliche comment, but, that's really all one can say: I hope it doesn't cause too much damage or deaths, or any at all for that matter.

 

[Serutan]

Sounds like there might not be many (if any) casualties, but there does seem to be
a fair bit of damage in Christchurch.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4094986/Ma...ts-South-Island

 

[MeteorPunch]

It's payback for all their Jedi's who worship the false god, the Force.

 

[MobBoss]

Wow, I hope Ainwood and Otago are ok.

 

[Whomp]

My sister lives in Wellington and said they felt something but thought it was just a small tremor. Her husband's parents live in Christchurch and said some things fell off the shelves but no real damage though they lost power and water.

 

[ainwood]

I live about 800 km away, and yet I felt it - it woke me up.

It is a city built on an alluvial plain. Apparently, a lot of the damage was due to the soil effectively liquefying as the water was shaken out of it.

No-one killed. I went to university there, and have quite a few friends & family who live there. To give an idea of the strength of it, my sister had a ute parked in her garage, and it got shaken about 3 feet backwards through the garage door, despite the handbrake being firmly on. No obvious structural damage to her house, though. My cousins lost their chimney. My Aunt & Uncle had their draws shaken-out, and lots of glassware & ornaments broken - can't walk around their house because of the broken glass; can't clean-up because of no electricity. Lack of electricity & water,and broken sewers are the main concerns at the moment. Lots of people pretty frightened - my nephew (6) was so scared he spent an hour or so vomiting.

Very fortunate this didn't happen during daylight hours, as a lot of the older buildings that collapsed are in the city center where very few people actually live.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Well, I live in the suburbs of Christchurch near the university. Got woken up at about 4.35am with the quake... the shaking literally went on for a few minutes. Pretty sure I haven't experienced one that long before. Several immediate aftershocks lastest for up to a minute with the shaking as well. Every 5-20 minutes in the 7 hours since the main quake we've been getting small aftershocks, and they're still happening as I type (door rattling a bit every now and then).

Power went out immediately during the first shock, but when we woke up about an hour and a half ago it was on again for us. Apparently power is still out in many areas though. The water here is still running fine, although apparently there is sewerage contamination in some places so boiling is a good precaution. (Those reports are mostly from Rolleston though - 15 km away - so it's probably not a problem.) We've bottled up about 30 litres of water as a precaution in case it stops running at any point though.

So basically, where I am (in the suburbs around uni) the effects seem to be fairly minor. There are reports of a few cracked roads here and there, and a few buildings down but almost all of those are in the older central city where relatively few people live. We can't see any obvious damage to our own house, and we only had a couple of broken glasses and a few things falling off shelves. Nothing major really.

I've actually got several experiments running for my PhD work that should have logged some of the data. Will be interesting to check it out later on.

Anyway, that's about it. You can probably find out more information on internet news sites, just figured I'd chime in since I seem to be the first person actually living in Christchurch to see this thread.

How many sheep died ?

None so far according to the reports, thankfully.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Oh, and I think they're now saying it was a 7.1 magnitude quake on some sources. Not that it makes a whole lot of difference. I think it was quite fortunate it was centred about 20-30 km west of the city, which damped some of the effects on the main city. Sucks for the rural folk living out there, of course, but at least the majority of the population in the city didn't get hit too hard. If that same shock had been located directly beneath the city, it probably would have caused a whole lot more damage.

 

[Gangor]

There seems to be quite a bit of damage to older buildings, but worse is the damage to the sewerage and water mains. Time to horde the bottled water...

 

[really]

To give an idea of the strength of it, my sister had a ute parked in her garage, and it got shaken about 3 feet backwards through the garage door, despite the handbrake being firmly on.

A ute is some form of pickup as far as I know.

 

[Lord Parkin]

A major earthquake near Christchurch has caused extensive damage to buildings and roads, cut power to large, and seriously injured two people.

The magnitude 7.1 quake occurred at 4.35am, 30 kilometres west of Christchurch, at a depth of approximately 10 kilometres. There have been several aftershocks, the strongest at 5.2 magnitude, GNS Science reports.

Building facades in the central city have collapsed, bridges are damaged, cars have been crushed and many homes have been damaged.

More details here, if anyone's interested.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/55956/major-earthquake-strikes-near-christchurch

 

[bestrfcplayer]

How many sheep died ?

lol. Somewhere around 10,000+

 

[Clam Spammer]

Christchurch resident here.

Incredibly, nothing's broken where I live. We lost about half the water from the swimming pool, but that was about the extent of it, besides small things falling off shelves and the like. We got power back about 10am. Seems I got off relatively lightly... but damn was it scary

I just heard (this will interest Lord Parkin and possibly others) the university will be closed for a week. We were nearing the end of a two-week term break - I guess some might consider that good news.

 

[Lord Parkin]

I just heard (this will interest Lord Parkin and possibly others) the university will be closed for a week. We were nearing the end of a two-week term break - I guess some might consider that good news.

Yeah, I got the emails. I presume you're another UC student?

Apparently the physics building laboratories and offices faired rather badly, especially up high. Major water leaks, and some chemical leaks. Roofing down, and a lot of equipment and computers munted by falls and/or water. Suffice it to say that a lot of experiments are probably relatively f'd.

I presume most of the other tall buildings will be similar. I wonder how many books fell off the shelves in the library.

 

[Clam Spammer]

Yeah, I got the emails. I presume you're another UC student?

That's right. Actually I never thought to check my email. I heard it on the radio and then looked up the website. Thankfully, I'm in Maths & Stats, so I'm not too badly affected - though I did start out doing Chemistry...

 

[classical_hero]

It is good to see that there is no loss of life and the damage is rather small, for such a quake.

 

[Whiskey_Lord]

Any hobbit casualties? Those earth mounds can't be that stable.

 

[Zardnaar]

4 hobbits and 19 sheep killed. I woke up at around 4:30 and I thought it was wind as the house was creaking but then i felt a tremor in my guts. Earthquake, big deal rolled over and fell asleep. Wasn't until I woke up that I found out Chch had taken some damage.