December 23, 2011

• On the scale of these things, we had a 5.9 over here in NJ, several months ago. How does that compare? I thought vandals had broken into the house and were breaking up the furniture. Everyone was on the street declaiming about the event. What's going on in kiwi land to compare with that?
• I live way down here in North Carolina and people here reported that they felt that earthquake. I felt nothing. I also did not feel the New Zealand quake.
• I did not feel the NZ quake here in Idaho, but lemme tell you, those folks have had their innings in the past few.
• This latest one is about the same as one they had in June. No fatalities, a few minor injuries, and buildings mostly already damaged were more damaged. The main worry is that it happened so close to Christmas, and after so long without a significant tremor, Cantabrians were getting ready to have a Merry Christmas for a change.
• Hey guys, I was vastly relieved to be out of town for the series of shakes over the last four days. The kids and I had headed to my parents' place and #2 had stayed behind to pick up the kids' Christmas present which was arriving at a warehouse around 2pm on Friday...so he was at home for the initial quake and said it felt like a 7, then packed the car up and went into town to get the present. He was in the kayak store when the larger second quake struck and said the poor owner (from the UK) was really freaked out and ran outside -- I suppose better to be out in a carpark than surrounded by wall-mounted kayaks. We didn't hear from #2 for quite a while which was worrying, but in the end all was well. The parts of the CBD that had reopened have stayed open as most of the buildings that could have collapsed further have been demolished or stabilised. At some point we'll head back into town. The cathedral in the centre of town has further significant damage and the talk doesn't seem to be of preservation any more, just of demolition. I'm pleased I wasn't in the CBD at the time; I'd been shopping there the day before and I'd prefer not to see tall buildings rocking. It's hard to compare quakes because how they feel depends on so many variables: the focal depth and type of ground are the main two. I don't know if it's in my head but the quakes that we get from the east (just off the coast or over in Lyttelton Harbour) have a rolling feel while the southwestern quakes (from Darfield/Rolleston) are sharper and more jarring. Sometimes you can tell by the damage what direction the ground has moved in -- books might be thrown off a south-facing bookcase but haven't moved at all on a west-facing bookcase. These are the random things you learn about earthquakes.
• Glad you were away with the kids, trac, and that everything is fine with you and yours. Random things to learn about earthquakes? Oh, how I so prefer my ignorance!
• I had no idea that earthquakes were such a common occurrence there. It sounds like you are back home now. That is good. Is everything okay with your house?
• They only became common after the big 7.1 in September last year. Up to then I had never experienced an earthquake in Christchurch -- but something set off that initial faultline and the ripple effect has been going on now for months. The news says we've had 15 aftershocks today alone. Bah. Yes, back home. We have had cracks in our brickwork since a biggish quake in June and we're waiting for our insurance company to approve repairs...but there's not much point until we've had a year without a shake.