02-22-2011
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Super Fuzzy Moderator
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Sydney Australia
Posts: 9,827
Rep Power: 8
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Fast, the problem for Christchurch is that she had not really recovered from the previous quake in September last year. Seismic upgrades may well have been proceeding but I'd be thinking not enough time had elapsed in which to make improvements. I hear on the radio this morning that since September there have been in excess of 4,000 aftershocks and that this one just happens to be the worst of them, to boot probably not the last.
I'm not pretending to be all that knowledgeable about NZ but I heard a former Prime Minister of NZ , Helen Clarke, interviewed and she said that it has always been considered that the North Island was the main sesmic activity focus, with Auckland in danger of volcanic activity and Wellington the earthquake hotspot. the South Island was considered to be relatively stable.
The big problem with this quake was threefold. It occurred in the middle of the day when the city was full of people, the epicentre was close by Christchurch and while the quake itself was smaller than last September's it was less than 5km from the surface.
The quake rocked ships in Lyttelton harbour. A large cruise liner visiting Lyttelton suffered damage with chandeliers falling from the ceiling.
I heard one report last night where a woman described hiding under her desk but having to hold onto the legs to prevent the desk flying into the air.
(Christchurch is in New Zealand's South Island.
Auckland is NZ's largest city.
Wellington is NZ's capital.
Last September 7.1.
This one 6.5.
Epicentre was at Lyttelton, less than 10km from Christchurch CBD.)
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