New Zealand Earthquake

[shiny!]

The northeast part of New Zealand's South Island near Christchurch experienced a magnitude 7.8 earthquake at 11:02 GMT Sunday. There have been severe aftershocks. A tsunami warning has been issued for the entire east coast. A 2-meter wave has hit the town of Kaikourameters. Seismologists say that more waves can be expected over the next several hours, possibly as high as 5-meters. People are evacuating to high ground.

Please pray for the people of New Zealand, especially our good friend Lakedaemonium. I don't know what part of NZ he lives in, but I hope that he and his loved-ones are safe and sound, and that he will check in with us when able.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquak...778i#executive

Probably no co-incidence that last night was the largest Supermoon in decades.

[jk]

Re: New Zealand Earthquake

i, too, thought of lakedaemonium when i read about the quake this morning. i hope all is well with him and his.

[Chris Coles]

Re: New Zealand Earthquake

Have old friends in North Island, when I get news will pass it on.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: New Zealand Earthquake

All good!

Cheers for the thoughts and concern.

We've lived through many thousands since 2010.

The ones last night, particularly the initial one, was like being on a boat for 5 minutes. Long slow rolling movement.

No damage at home or with my local businesses.

But living on the beach we had to depart for about 8 hours due to tsunami false alarm.

[shiny!]

Re: New Zealand Earthquake

Glad you're all OK. That 5 minutes must have felt like 5 hours!

[vt]

Re: New Zealand Earthquake

Prayers for all there.

[santafe2]

Re: New Zealand Earthquake

New Zealand has the misfortune to sit on one of the Southern ends of the Ring of Fire. As tectonic plates are subducted or collide, earthquakes happen. The great majority of them along the Ring of Fire. I believe it's more collision along this portion which runs directly through NZ and may help explain New Zealand's existence. If there's a trained geologist lurking, they can offer a professional opinion.

As an ex-Angeleno, I can tell you that what gets reported in the "news" is nothing like the actual experience of a major earthquake and its aftermath. In the last day NE NZ has had 36 earthquakes of 4.2 magnitude or higher. Here's what it was like at ground zero. There was a massive 7.8 followed 10 minutes later by a 5.8 and 20 minutes after that by a 6.5, 9 minutes later a 5.7 and 11 minutes after that a 6.1. Then over the next 90 minutes there were 8 earthquakes of about 5.0. Then, 10 minutes later a 6.1 and a few hours ago a 6.5. This is a serious swarm of earthquakes.

After reading lake's description of his experience I suspect he's well away from the epicenter(s) of these quakes as they shake hard near the epicenter and as one is removed from the epicenter they tend to roll. I don't remember which earthquake it was but I was driving North on the 5 in Orange County and while I didn't feel the earthquake, I watched the freeway roll and list back and forth for about a minute as the earthquake rolled through. There was no damage but all of us driving slowed down in an attempt to navigate a somewhat liquid stretch of concrete.

Here's a map of New Zealand over the last 24 hours. The quakes measure from 7.8 to 4.2. Red is not magnitude, it's time. That one happened in the last hour.

[GRG55]

Re: New Zealand Earthquake

Thankful to hear you and your family okay lake...

We pray everyone else there will recover and rebuild disrupted lives as quickly as humanly possible.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: New Zealand Earthquake

Cheers Team!

This latest cluster of earthquakes is going to be another example of the need for adaptability/agility to trump(pun intended) efficiency.

For example:

Ferry links between North & South Islands has been impaired by roll on roll off dock damage

2 of 3(with 3rd being a very long, indirect option) road systems for commercial traffic between North & South Islands have been severed.

Just in Time inventory and logistics are going to be taxed.

Everyone has heard of "black swan" events.

"White swan" events being the usual day to day Grounghog Day.

I was in a discussion today about "black necked swan" events such as this.

Extra large GFC apocalypse sized problem black swans are pretty rare, but medium to large sized problem black necked swans are becoming increasingly common.

The past was IQ

The present is EQ

The future is AQ(Adaptability: unlearning & relearning)

Solve the problem!

[icm63]

Re: New Zealand Earthquake

Free crayfish as the sea bed jumped 1m out of the water! Yippee

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: New Zealand Earthquake

Great to see you back, icm63.

[Chris Coles]

Re: New Zealand Earthquake

As promised this just came in from friends living North Island.

"The weather here is rubbish at the moment and in the South Island where the main damage was done they have had some lousy weather high winds and bucket loads of rain. Again before the two earthquakes, there was some very warm weather and the quakes themselves, apparently two different types, the first one was a North /South quake, which started off an East/West one. The shore line has risen Two metres, by Kaikoura which is a lovely town, we went whale watching there, brilliant, there is, was, a large shelf which a little like Falmouth harbour, the water is very shallow, then boom almost no bottom well 200m at least. the place is still cut off apart from Army 4x4's allowed in, Wellington still getting after shocks and a few high rise blocks will be demolished."

[shiny!]

Re: New Zealand Earthquake

Very interesting. Thank you, Chris.