Quake Watch 2012

Originally posted by aarys
Thinking of heading up to Blenheim. My mother and sister are all ready looking at real estate up there.
I really think alot of people are thinking the same. A year and a half of this crap is just a bit to much.

Not wanting to rain on your parade, but have you looked into the Wairau Fault Zone?

I was woken up by the 5:45 shaker. Slept right through the earlier ones, but this one got me. It's been a pleasant move to Southbridge, as we only seem to feel the higher 4s +.
However, the 23rdDec shake gave us a small ceiling crack, and the ones this morning did the same in another room.
As I was quite sleepy, I can't really explain it well, but it did go on for 10 seconds plus. My wife was at work and said the shaking was in a different direction with this new series.
My heart goes out to the people of east Christchurch (particularly). They seem to be being hit hard at the moment. A few of my workmates are on that side of town and they're having a hard time, not just with the physical shaking, but with insurance companies, uncertain zoning and dubious geotech reports.

The 23rd December shake (I know I'm going back in time, sorry) also did a small amount of damage to the University and I know we've lot at least one miscroscope, ceiling tiles have fallen down and many new cracks have appeared. No doubt today's shakes have done a bit more. Every building is affected in some way, city-wide, I'm sure!

Kia kaha Cantabrians.

reply to post by BO XIAN

JUST TO MAKE THE POSTS READABLE WITH PARAGRAPHING:

Sorry but today I had no patience, and was eventually “Okay!!

reply to post by aorAki


Welcome to Southbridge It is a wonderful place to be

The 5.45 actually woke hubby - that's a first since Sept 4th. It was REALLY noisy and seemed to go on and on. I got up (which I don't usually do these days) because I was certain it was going to get bigger. The 1.30am one woke me and my youngest but everyone else slept through. I was surprised by the 5.5 rating on the 5.45 one, but have since seen on Geonet facebook it was two events of a similar magnitude 12 seconds apart?

Quake Details
Information about this earthquake:

Reference Number 3636115
[View event in Google Maps]
[View Felt Reports in Google Maps]
Universal Time January 1 2012 at 16:45
NZ Daylight Time Monday, January 2 2012 at 5:45 am
Latitude, Longitude 43.48°S, 172.88°E
Focal Depth 15 km
Richter magnitude 5.5
Region Canterbury
Location 20 km east of Belfast
20 km north-east of Lyttelton
20 km east of Christchurch


Felt strongly in Christchurch. Two earthquakes of similar magnitude 12 seconds apart



They've only listed one though? I certainly think we *felt* two events. I am VERY concerned that the jiggles appear to be moving north east towards that larger Pegasus Fault? Hmmmm. And they seem to be really large compared to the original events? Our 7.1 has spawned a fair few 6's and high 5's so far. I've heard about Landers - does it look like we're heading for a similar type of event sequence?

Glad to hear you're ok aorAki.

Just responding on the recent Christchurch quakes...went out to the movies last night with the wife and as it was our first movie in a longtime, I joked about how it might be interesting to be watching a movie, when an aftershock struck...well of course about an hour in we copped a 3.95 that caused a bit of consternation!

I'm also a very light sleeper so after getting to bed just after 12:30am, was hardly in dreamland when the 5.1 at 1:27am hit. Took a while to get back to sleep after that as my mind was thinking...if this another foreshock to a LARGER one, an hour or two later???

Anyway, got some sleep and then woke around 5:15am feeling a little randy, so woke the wife and around 5:40am was just relaxing after creating some aftershocks of my own, and ready to drift back to sleep when the 5.5 struck at 5:45am!

Well, it was definitely different to some of the other major ones, in that apart from hearing it coming, it was more rolling and lasted a bit longer that the short & sharp ones we tend to get. I heard on the early news, but nowhere else, that there was possibly TWO 5.5's only 12 seconds apart, and I have to say that at the time it felt like there was an increase-decrease-increase intensity about it.

Once again, I noticed unusal clouds in the sky yesterday morning and mentioned to some people I spoke to during the day, that I wouldn't be at all surprized if we experienced something largish in the next 24 hours...I also mentioned in a post after the 23rd's big quakes, that it was predicted that around the 3-5th of Jan there would be a high risk of quakes in the region (+/- 3 days).

Based on the predictions for this month, it's going to be a real rocker!

A member in Australia started a
thread re the quakes in Christchurch.
This is just heresay as he only heard
it on the radio - more than one quake
and the ground was opening up in
many locations. Anyone know anything
else?

Theres nothing on the database to show there were 2 quakes, just the one at 5.478ML
the next one was a 4.19ML 5 minutes later
magma.geonet.org.nz...

busy day across the whole of NZ there were 29 quakes before the 5.5 and 39 since, 69 total

reply to post by aarys

You are probably heading in the wrong direction if you want to get away from earthquakes, Cook Strait is where all this is heading to IMO. Blenheim is on an alluvial plain (of the Wairau River) just like Christchurch is

The safest earthquake free places in NZ are north of the Bombay Hills or south of Timaru (but not south west).
There are disadvantages there though too any people in the north, and not enough in the south

Re your ceiling cracks,
how old is your house?
is it on a concrete slab or wooden piles?
modern house design in NZ has lost its way IMO, brick and clay tile roofs on concrete slabs are no good here, timber is the way. Our house is over 50 years old, wooden piles, timber weatherboards and 7 tons of concrete tile on the roof. Been a lot of earthquakes pass through here in that time, several 6's a couple of far off 7's and about 100 mag 5's, there are no cracks inside, and the roof has never even had the pointing redone in that time.
I work in construction myself and I would never buy a house newer than 1970, the products used today are just crap.

We're near Darfield and both the 5.1 last night and the 5.5 this morning I thought were from the Greendale fault as the shaking was very different to that usually felt from the city faults and it wasn't the "distant bobbing" usually associated with large quakes in the city. I was even more surprised to see they were both 10km east of chch as they felt much much closer.

The house here moved side to side - a familiar scenario we get from the View Hill, Greendale and Rolleston shakes with little "sea legs" movement.

I'm not liking the potential for the aftershocks out near Pegasus Bay to kick off some more major action..

reply to post by MoorfNZ


To NZ:

Peace BE STILL.
Soil lurching stop.
May calm endure.

---

May wisdom and safety flood the land.
May hearts, minds and hands unite in Healing Acts.
May prayer prove mightier than concrete or tremors.

---

May human priorities surmount pride and power.
May tenderness and compassion be stronger than super quakes.
May 'banding together' overcome power plays and grandstanding.

---

May relationships be strengthened.
May eternal priorities reign supreme.
May solutions be enroute before the problems are fully felt.
May power, water, sanitation, housing and food be abundantly supplied, regardless.

Please be particularly with the children, Lord.
Comfort fears and anxieties.
Install your order and peace in the midst of uncertainty and hazard.

1 January 2012 Last updated at 01:57 GMT

Istanbul prepares for major earthquake
By Jonathan Head
BBC News, Istanbul

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16357602

(...)

There has been an average of one big earthquake every century in Istanbul for the past 1,500 years. The last one was in 1894. By any reckoning, the city is due for another.

(...)

reply to post by xecoybh

All they can do is ramp up their SAR Teams funding for more training and extra equipment.
Too late to legislate the building by-laws with "around one million buildings" already there.

reply to post by xecoybh


They have been saying that as long as I can remember, and the Beeb trots it out from time to time as do the papers.

Of course it will happen some time. No doubt of that.

Quake in Cali.

4.1 Date-Time Tuesday, January 03, 2012 at 14:18:56 UTC Tuesday, January 03, 2012 at 06:18:56 AM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones Location 33.195°N, 119.449°W Depth 18.4 km (11.4 miles) Region CHANNEL ISLANDS REGION, CALIFORNIA Distances 7 km (4 miles) SE (134°) from San Nicolas Is., CA 81 km (50 miles) WNW (283°) from San Clemente Is., CA (NW tip) 103 km (64 miles) SE (144°) from Santa Rosa Is., CA 114 km (70 miles) SSW (193°) from Oxnard, CA 147 km (91 miles) SW (230°) from Los Angeles Civic Center, CA Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 1.1 km (0.7 miles); depth +/- 0.9 km (0.6 miles) Parameters Nph= 20, Dmin=9 km, Rmss=0.29 sec, Gp=205°, M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=3 Source California Integrated Seismic Net: USGS Caltech CGS UCB UCSD UNR Event ID ci11049285

This isn't on a fault line, is it?

Here is the info on the California quake:

4.1 CHANNEL ISLANDS REGION, CALIFORNIA33.20°N -119.45°W 18Km Deep 2012-01-03 14:18:56 UTC2012-01-03 06:18:56 LOCAL CI11049285

Hawaii as well

3.4 HAWAII REGION, HAWAII19.73°N -154.99°W 15Km Deep 2012-01-03 13:32:56 UTC2012-01-03 03:32:56 LOCAL HV60295741

reply to post by Jerisa


Jerisa, more than likely...BTW, I really want to see your other EYE. Which way is it pointing?

reply to post by SpaceJockey1


If you can fix this darn avatar you can see..

On topic, as for the link sorry about the caps, I was in a rush and did a copy/paste.

www.wkbn.com...

www.nytimes.com...

www.thedailybeast.com...

reply to post by Jerisa


I know it's off-topic but you need to adjust your avatar width to 200 pixels.

Glad to see that both eyes are fine

www.reuters.com...

www.reuters.com...

www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com...

www.sustainablebusiness.com...

gothamist.com...

Either a busy start to 2012 here in NZ or Geonet has kicked off Geonet Rapid already
Preliminary number of earthquakes per day;
Jan 1 - 69
Jan 2 - 43
Jan 3 - 46
graphs

2011 preliminary count was; (with the updated and revised count at the end of the year in brackets)
Jan 1 - 25 (80)
Jan 2 - 23 (66)
Jan 3 - 27 (77)

If Geonet Rapid hasn't started yet, then those numbers for 2012 are massive
possible revised x 3