7.0 Earthquake in New Zealand

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Vic Balshaw said:
Looks like a lucky escape for all, according to tonight's news, only a couple of people injured, but loads of damage.
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Gidday from New Zealand and thanks for your best wishes. Living 300 km south of Christchurch I was not directly affected, 'cept being woken at 0430 because my bed was rocking...thought it was the girlfriend. 8)
Seriously, Christchurch and the surrounding districts were extremely lucky with a minimum of casualties. Unfortunately there has been lots of damage to buildings and infra-structure, and a curfew has been placed on the city-centre.

New Zealand has a relatively small population (just over 4,000,000) so Christchurch and districts, with a population of 500,000, is one of our major cities and is the biggest population centre in the South Island.
 
Glad to hear everyone is okay. Damage is one thing, but it could have been much worse. I think you guys are quite lucky.

Keep us posted on any developments.
 
Good to know everyone is OK. Saw this on the news in the early hours of this morning. An after shock has been recorded at 5.1, with more expected.
 
Dang, 7.0 will get ya rockin and rollin! Echoing the above sentiments, glad everyone's okay and play it safe for the next little while as they assess the damage....you dont' want to be the guy who finds out that that structure over there <<points in random direction>> is no longer structurally sound due to earthquake damage...
 
syscom3 said:
The quake was only 3 miles deep. Amazing that the damage was a light as it was for such a large shallow focus quake!
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Apart from the Port Hills in Christchurch most of the Canterbury Plains is made up of alluvial terrace gravels and loess deposited by glaciers etc, and transported and deposited by braided river systems. During earthquakes these can act almost like a dampener (as opposed to volcanic rocks, for example, which can exacerbate shockwaves). The biggest problem in Christchurch, and (probably) the prime cause of damage, is liquification. I'm kind of simplifying things and there are probably geologists who would cringe, but I'm pretty sure I have the basics right.
Bottom line is that all of us New Zealanders are thankful that there was not a major death toll.
 
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