7.8 and 5.8 quakes off the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand

New Zealand

earthquake.usgs.gov...

Man that's big...tsunami?

Earthquake Details
Magnitude 8.2 (Preliminary magnitude — update expected within 15 minutes)
Date-Time

* Wednesday, July 15, 2009 at 09:22:32 UTC
* Wednesday, July 15, 2009 at 08:22:32 PM at epicenter

Location 45.635°S, 166.418°E
Depth 31 km (19.3 miles) set by location program
Region OFF WEST COAST OF THE SOUTH ISLAND, N.Z.
Distances

* 172 km (107 miles) WNW (299°) from Invercargill, New Zealand
* 189 km (117 miles) WSW (249°) from Queenstown, New Zealand
* 318 km (197 miles) W (273°) from Dunedin, New Zealand
* 830 km (516 miles) SW (232°) from WELLINGTON, New Zealand

Location Uncertainty Error estimate not available
Parameters NST= 9, Nph= 9, Dmin=337.8 km, Rmss=1.13 sec, Gp=126°,
M-type="moment" magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=1
Source

* West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center/NOAA/NWS

Event ID at00764975

* This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

That's now considered a "Major" quake... less rare...hope everyone's ok.

7.0-7.9 Major earthquake. Can cause serious damage over larger areas.

www.seismo.unr.edu...

Anyone watching Gee? That'll show up around the world probably! Maybe it will get revised down... Aftershocks will be big probably...

map:
earthquake.usgs.gov...

"Off the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand"

[edit on Wed Jul 15th 2009 by TrueAmerican]

USGS says its a 7.8

No Tsunami warnings or watches for the US West Coast.

NOAA Alert

[edit on 15-7-2009 by amongus]

I'm watching GEE and it resonating everywhere!
Even on seismometers near where I live (not that I could feel it directly though).

if there's a tsunami, which they've warned, Sydney Harbour'd probably get some in about 4-5 hrs time

Yep, I am getting screen caps in Gee too, will post here in a minute.... I missed the biggest part of it though.... I do have one pushing 661 microns though BHE. Man!

Shirakawa, tune into IU.SNZO that's on the Island...We might catch a big aftershock.

[edit on Wed Jul 15th 2009 by TrueAmerican]

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Wow, that's a stong one...what are the prospects of another big one anywhere populated right after one occurs down there...are there any historic patterns that you are aware of? Thanks for letting us here know

reply to post by plainmike


Hi, well yes, something that strong can excite other fault zones, and it may have just triggered a 5.0 South of Alaska! Although we'd have to calculate arrival times on that....not sure if the shock waves from the big one could have gotten that far that fast....

earthquake.usgs.gov...

[edit on Wed Jul 15th 2009 by TrueAmerican]

I live in Christchurch on the East Coast South Island. Looks like people felt across all of NZ. NZ Geonet is only report 6.6 and no Tsunami.

Geonet Link

Was unnerving the length of time that it went on for.


Below is a Graph from Wanaka close to the southern Alps.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/66683c9470d8.jpg[/atsimg]

The trace will appear red if the signals are very large; this means they have been clipped to stop them overwriting too much of the surrounding image.

[edit on 15-7-2009 by greenfruit]

[edit on 15-7-2009 by greenfruit]

WATCH THE WEST COAST USA, they are just arriving now I think.... That could trigger something in CA...

Australian Govt: tsunami threat to New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, Norfolk Island and Lord Home Island.

Hmm... nothing in Australia.

I've been expecting something big because the number of quakes on USGS for the last two weeks has been dropping into the 150s and it's the second time it's done that in recent months but there was nothing big the last time it happened.

I was kind of expecting it to happen in CA, though because of all the odd tremors they've been having there recently.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


I just heard about this on News..... It's a biggie and also a possible explanation for thos rocks that had risen up a few days ago.... there was all sorts of people saying what they thought the upshifted rocks were but none of them said it was a possible warning of an Earthquake!!!

Geonet now report the quake only 6.1 and a depth of 5Km

No reports of damge, some power outages.

Geonet Link

Hope everyone is okay! Be safe Greenfruit and our friends in NZ. Thanks for the updates everyone.

reply to post by asala


Oh no! That did happen right off the coast...

And from what I am seeing in GEE right now, the island of New Zealand is still shaking from that thing. It's dying down though...

The first thing that came to mind was all the atsers from New Zealand.
I hope everyone is ok.

I heard that it sounded like a long rolling bowling ball effect that rolled through the country.
Central Southland are in a black out.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


GEE? What's that?

An Iranian Plane also went down with 168 on board all dead!!!

There really does seem to be a hell of a lot of disasters this year!!!

[edit on 15-7-2009 by TruthxIsxInxThexMist]

Originally posted by greenfruit
Geonet now report the quake only 6.1 and a depth of 5Km

No reports of damge, some power outages.

Geonet Link

Nope! They have since found that it is 2 quakes! not just one! the first was a 6.1 and the 2nd a 7.8

It lead them to be a bit confused at first thinking it was just one quake,