7.0 earthquake hits Christchurch, New Zealand

Still thinking of you guys over there.

I am in Ireland here and have access to UK and US /worldwide news channels. The coverage this is getting is an absolute f***ing disgrace.

To me it looks like the worlds media has forgot New Zealand exists????

reply to post by JohnySeagull

Yeah its not getting much coverage here either, just a few items on the 6 o'clock news on TV following up on some of the people who featured on their bulletins early on, and warnings about letting dodgy tradesmen at your damaged house without clearance from the Insc. co's.
One woman got out with the skin of her teeth and then her house got looted on Friday night (what scum eh)
Police ejected a family from the emergency shelter, turns out their house was 100% OK with power, water and sewage, they were just freloading, they were "already known to Police" (more scum)

The ATS peeps down there must be trying to catch up on some rest.

There was a decent aftershock early this morning;

# Reference Number: 3370677
# NZST: Sun, Sep 12 2010 6:03 am
# Magnitude: 4.6
# Depth: 5 km
www.geonet.org.nz...

That 4.452 ML under Rolleston yesterday afternoon must have been a good one, MM8 Heavily damaging in Hoon Hay, wonder what the damage was?, building already damaged collapsed in this one?

noon 12th to Noon 13th NZST map

Has anyone in the know made mention to that volcano, is it waking? I think the people in the know need to take seriously new fissures opening I think you in New Zealand might just be the beginning.

This is something we all need to keep a check on, I can't even imagine how you are all coping with this but I am so happy to hear that you are there for each other.

My best to you all

Originally posted by observe50
Has anyone in the know made mention to that volcano, is it waking? I think the people in the know need to take seriously new fissures opening I think you in New Zealand might just be the beginning.

This is something we all need to keep a check on, I can't even imagine how you are all coping with this but I am so happy to hear that you are there for each other.

My best to you all

Thanks for your thoughts, they are appreciated

We don't need that kind of scarmongering, however. There is NO CHANCE that the Lytellton Volcanic Complex will erupt. It is extinct. The "people in the know" have tried their best to dispell the fears that people have voiced about this, and they know what they are talking about.

What is with the reported hot spring activity on Banks Peninsula?

This is no cause for concern. When earthquakes occur, they liberate deep waters and gases from the crust and from hot springs. This is nothing unusual and DOES NOT mean that the ancient volcanoes on Banks Peninsula will erupt ! The last time the volcanic centres of the Banks Peninsula erupted was ~5.8 million years ago and they are well extinct. There is no evidence of magma remaining beneath Banks Peninsula.

www.drquigs.com...

Aoraki,

If you think I was scarmonering I am truly sorry, it was not meant to come off that way.

Last I want to say before I leave the thread is:

My best to you all you are in my thoughts

reply to post by observe50


observe50, it's not you, it's me
I'm overly sensitive and have seen and spoken to too many people who are freaked out about the Volcano erupting again, so I apologise if I came across as short.
The link I supplied has excellent information and some contacts who have studied the area intimately.

I know at least one person who is urined-off at the media reports and "scientists at their desks in Wellington".

All the best

Going out to do some GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) of the fault trace in a couple of paddocks tomorrow...some of it has already been ploughed over, but there is a concern about subsidence, so we're going to have a look at the subsurface.

aorAki (or anyone else here) do you know where I can get the exact co-ordinates of the Darfield fault trace that the GNS guys measured?
I have been working on creating kml files of NZ Faults.I can't find such a thing anywhere for existing known faults, just the GNS Faults Data base, but it doesn't do kml.
I have done all the Wellington faults.
NZ has a bit of catching up with USGS to do in that regard.

muzzy, at this stage I gather they are still surveying ( a team went out today with GPS gear) and so it will take a while for the data to be released publicly (and that includes me) as they will need to process it and create a map etc. I will ask around though and see if I can get some inside information tomorrow...

I found this interesting, regarding the 'quake drums at Kahutara (near Kaikoura). It doesn't appear to show up on the other drums and so is a local event....a wee swarm about 2 1/2 hours ago:



Compare the McQueens Valley (near Christchurch) 'quake drum:



I'm not sure what it means (if anything) but thought it was an interesting observation.

reply to post by aorAki


have a nice day out there, no rain forecast.

Is that GPS crew the guy with the satelitte dish hat?

Nothing on the search for Kaikoura yet. There were a couple off the peninsula yesterday.

The aftershocks are starting to get lost in the overall New Zealand picture as background seismicity returns to normal levels in other parts of the country.
Less "Felt" reports at Geonet as the magnitudes fall, but there are still 15+ quakes per 24hrs.
There may have been more than that, but it will be weeks before the smaller ones get listed on the Catalogue.

I won't forget about you guys and gals..

Made you your own aftershock page on my blog. It has the complete list of aftershocks
I'll update it every day (it uses the same data as the whole of NZ but the maps focus on Christchurch).

Darfield Aftershock Page

note: be patient to let the markers load, there are 12 maps of data to load

Thanks Muzzy

So what do you make of the Kaikoura quakes earlier? The GeoNet guys said on their Facebook page that they will be releasing a news article about it later today or tomorrow morning. They weren't what I'd class normal for the area.. ?

Damn!
I couldn't go and do the GPR as I had to stay behind and try to maintain a sensitive instrument which was damaged. Consequently I couldn't ask my questions. Oh, the vagaries of being a paleontologist in a seismologists' World.
However, we are having a departmental lecture on Monday which addresses the recent events and THEN I should have more answers hopefully.

Moorf, I'm not sure about the Kaikoura 'quakes, but it looks interesting at the least.

reply to post by MoorfNZ

I'm not sure, they seem to be having their own little party up there don't they.
There is still nothng showing for the series on aorAki's screenshot at 17:40 NZST 14th which would have been Sept14th 5:40am UTC). They look like Mag 2's

Heres a link to a kml file for Google Earth of the latest data from Geonet available (15th UTC)
I didn't convert the markers to colour coding yet..

dl.dropbox.com...




Map Version

Couple of 4.5 aftershocks down there this morning

What Earthquake?

I was talking to my soninlaw this afternoon in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He is 40
They hadn't even heard there had been a big quake here

either he been to busy to watch or hear the News or there is some really lacking media coverage in Canada.

You would think this would have been all over the World Press.

If that quake had hit Wellington we could have been dead and gone for all they knew about it.

He had heard of the "Storm Bigger than Australia" though.

Go figure

Originally posted by MoorfNZ
Thanks Muzzy

So what do you make of the Kaikoura quakes earlier? The GeoNet guys said on their Facebook page that they will be releasing a news article about it later today or tomorrow morning. They weren't what I'd class normal for the area.. ?

Here is what GeoNet had to say when I asked for "news" on the Kaikoura quakes...

"I have just been speaking to one of our duty seismologists. The earthquakes in Kaikoura were not directly caused by the ChCh earthquakes. The Kaikoura quakes were basically sitting there waiting to happen and ChCh (or other quakes) were enough to set them off. There is no fault extending from Kaikoura to Christchurch [a question asked by another], the lines you can see on GoogleMaps are the bathymetry."

Just checked out the drum near Kaikoura ... swarm?

www.geonet.org.nz...

being born in chch its kinda sad that the "actual" building me and alot of my friends were all born in. practically the same ward within minutes/hours/days/months of each other. is gone (not earthquake related). and now the rest of the heritage of the place has been brought down. not just by earthquakes but by those hungry land grabbers who feel its right to condemn a place bring it down. pay them off and now just buy there plot of land..

also i think not alot of people have mentioned this

Earthquakes Christchurch NZ. over 700 earthquakes, since the large 7.1 early on the 4th.
anything suspect here?

the city has almost been leveled with devastation. those still standing are being pulled down and condemned i have many friends who have lost everything. just gone. so what now for this country? a storm. lol.

the roughest storm on the planet approaches. (although its 1000km south of nz its still going to roll over us. its the size of Australia. (continued until sunday night) as it passes over. we've had some really high winds, low snow fall. intense snowfall and torrential rain. just what we need to sponge away the "rubble and mortar" or to damage what ever repair process's were underway


whats also rather suspect i think is the EQC (earthquake commission) just set up $16B and now i think all the business men rich enough are just going to buy up the land like so many times in the past. cheap land grab.



www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz
(see all of them in realtime up to the last 3 hours / 24 hours)

i have heard that its "electrical earthquakes" caused by quartz in the marsh/swampy/lowlands and plains of canterbury.... no sure but kinda makes a bit of sense.

also a small passenger plane flipped upside down and crashed in a paddock after take off.. killed em all.
coincidence? right @ the time of the earthquake i hear.

some people reported lights in the sky, some people reported cell phones not working yet there all off battery.. doesn't that sound like someone stated a bit suspect? we all know there are weather control and earthquake / thumpers/acoustic resonant devices which can generate a quake.

and in the time it taken to locate this thread and post this. there's bee another aftershock. now the total is 713.

reply to post by MoorfNZ




I still can't see anything for those 10 Kaikoura pulses on the graph in the search lists. Current 14th Sept UTC List
I wish Geonet would do their graphs in UTC time like everyone else does, I'm not sure if those pulses are 2 hours or 2.25hrs prior to 17:40:11 UTC or what?.

I presume each quake has its own number and they run in sequence?
If that is the case there are some major gaps in the numbers that these mystery events can be fitted into (depending on what time they were)

3372134, 2010/9/14 14:42:40, Darfield
19 number gap
3372153, 2010/9/14 15:35:22, Darfield
and
3372157, 2010/9/14 15:51:18, Nr. Garabaldi Ridge, Kahurangi National Park, Tasman
13 number gap
3372170, 2010/9/14 16:29:33, Raukumara Plain, E of Rumble V Submarine Volcano

of course there were probably quakes in other parts of NZ as well at that time, the low 2's and 1's sometimes take weeks to plot the location and magnitude.

This article is an interesting read about the 5.4 "foreshock" Quigley again.
"There were three definite pulses of energy at 4.35am on September 4. The first quake had been hard to pinpoint because its signals had been masked by the two much larger pulses of energy almost immediately afterwards"
www.stuff.co.nz...

The aftershocks seem to be more concentrated between Rolleston and Lincoln now.

reply to post by Ashyr


700 aftershocks is about spot on for a 7.1Mw quake.
The Dusky Sound 7.6Mw quake last year had 1181 aftershocks in the same time period ( 2 weeks)

Those old buildings should have been earthquake strenghtened long ago, tight ass landlords too cheap to spend the money get to rebuild on our taxpayer dollar.
Knock them down and be done with it, you can't eat heritage, people have businesses to run and lives to get on with.
Sure save the churches, art gallerys etc but private buildings should come down unless the owners can afford to repair them themselves (ie had insurance)
This quake is going to take a 5% chunk of NZ's annual GDP, and thats not counting what the Inscurance companies will pay.