Note aftershocks ranging from 5.6 to 4.5 have also been felt in the last few hours. Here is a list of quakes.
We wish our Kiwi friends well, and hope that the quake is not as bad as first reports indicate.
From MSNBC
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A 6.3-magnitude earthquake Tuesday rocked the southern New Zealand city of Christchurch, collapsing buildings, cracking streets and causing multiple fatalities and serious injuries.
The nation’s leader, Prime Minister John Key, said at least 65 had died as a result of the disaster and told reporters in the stricken city that the death toll was expected to rise further.
Live video footage showed streets strewn with bricks and shattered concrete. Sidewalks and roads were cracked and split, and hundreds of dazed, screaming and crying residents wandered as sirens blared throughout the city. Bodies were being pulled from rubble. Water mains burst, causing extensive flooding.
“There have been fatalities,” John Hamilton, the head of New Zealand’s civil defense, told reporters. “We can’t confirm the numbers yet, we’ll leave that to the police process to go through.”
New Zealand police said in a statement that there were reports of multiple deaths, including a report that two buses had been crushed by falling buildings. The police statement said there were other reports of fires burning.
…
The epicenter of the quake was located in the “worst possible location” for city residents, New Zealand’s GeoNet Center data manager Kevin Fenaughty told the New Zealand Herald.
From comments, link to a photogallery here
======================================================
Quake details:
| Magnitude | 6.3 |
|---|---|
| Date-Time |
|
| Location | 43.600°S, 172.710°E |
| Depth | 5 km (3.1 miles) |
| Region | SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND |
| Distances | NEAR Christchurch, New Zealand
225 km (140 miles) SSE of Westport, New Zealand 305 km (190 miles) SSW of WELLINGTON, New Zealand 310 km (190 miles) NE of Dunedin, New Zealand |
| Location Uncertainty | horizontal +/- 12.2 km (7.6 miles); depth +/- 0.6 km (0.4 miles) |
| Parameters | Nph= 0, Dmin=0 km, Rmss=0.98 sec, Gp= 0,
M-type=”moment” magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=D |
| Source |
|
| Event ID | usb0001igm |
magnitude earthquake Tuesday rocked the
southern New Zealand city of Christchurch,
collapsing buildings, cracking streets and
causing multiple fatalities and serious injuries.
The nation’s leader, Prime Minister John Key,said at least 65 had died as a result of the
disaster and told reporters in the stricken city
that the death toll was expected to rise further.
Live video footage showed streets strewn withbricks and shattered concrete. Sidewalks and
roads were cracked and split, and hundreds of
dazed, screaming and crying residents
wandered as sirens blared throughout the city.
Bodies were being pulled from rubble. Water
mains burst, causing extensive flooding.
“There have been fatalities,” John Hamilton, thehead of New Zealand’s civil defense, told
reporters. “We can’t confirm the numbers yet,
we’ll leave that to the police process to go
through.”
New Zealand police said in a statement thatthere were reports of multiple deaths,
including a report that two buses had been
crushed by falling buildings. The police
statement said there were other reports of
fires burning.
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Alan Wilkinson says:
February 24, 2011 at 10:50 am
Ignore otropogo. Here are more immediate conclusions:
Yes – good article. Good questions asked – good answers.
Thanks
Douglas
Alan and Douglas – the GNS mid-Sept call turned out to be less than perfect. I can see in a lot of GNS and expert statements a desire to sound wise and knowing to Govt and public. The acid test would be – did GNS talk to Govt say after the January mag 5 shake and say something like. “Well it has not faded away like we hoped in mid Sept – we have had 4 mag 5 shakes since we told you there might be 2 more. We are in uncharted territory in this new seismic zone.”
There are comments here too;
http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/
Warwick, there is no question but that Christchurch will be rebuilt. Seismic analysis says the forces of this quake were nearly double that of present building code design requirements so doubtless they will be raised. Christchurch will be the safest major New Zealand city by the end of reconstruction.
Warwick Hughes says: February 24, 2011 at 2:43 pm
the GNS mid-Sept call turned out to be less than perfect. I can see in a lot of GNS and expert statements a desire to sound wise and knowing to Govt and public.
—————————————————————————
Warwick Thanks for the reference. Reading your blog article of 24th Feb I see what you mean. I had (erroneously) thought that the continued aftershocks were all part of the September 4th event.
No doubt the building codes will take into account all the information collected from this event when they (eventually) rebuild the city.
Douglas
Hey Warwick, New Zealand was once part of Gondwana, but you fellas went walk-about and left us out here on the collision zone to face all the music! Thankfully we aren’t facing it alone. The support from around the world has been fantastic to see. They are all professionals but you can see that they want to be here to help.
I concur with your statement on how little we know about this planet. Events like this really emphasise this point, whilst also highlighting the arrogance of those who claim in another earth-science field that THEY KNOW ALL THERE IS TO KNOW! (Why aren’t I bowing and scraping? (sarc off).
As for hidden fault lines, some Aussies will well remember the very real shock of New Castle only 20 or so years ago. Talk about not being prepared. Who knew until it actually happened?
I have friends and family in Christchurch. They are all o.k. One a student of engineering at the University of Canterbury, has been evacuated, but to where I don’t know because communication is so limited. Other friends have lost there home and business premises, both were hardly affected back in September. At least they are alive.
Best wishes to all in the Canterbury region,
Coops.
Map of earthquake aftershocks in Christchurch http://eqviewer.co.nz/
Douglas says: February 23, 2011 at 5:27 pm
“I don’t see anything that Mike Haseler has said here that was constructive. “
Douglas, I was simply disgusted that WUWT allowed their forum to become a “send a message of deepest sympathy for the latest disaster”.
This to my mind is the whole basis of the global warming scam. 30 years ago, the New Zealand earthquake would hardly have made the news in Scotland, 30 years ago this or that flood, this or that drought, this or that hurricane would hardly have made the news and it certainly wouldn’t have prevented discussion regarding any natural disaster by those who were interested in the science.
These days, the news is full of disasters, not because the number or physical severity of the disaster has changed, but because the news media are on these stories like a swarm of flies. Worse, we are all supposed to treat each and every disaster as if we are first hand participants, rather than third hand observers. That is not a reasonable thing to expect.
That is bad enough in the Main Stream Media where we expect their profit orientated crocodile tears, but at least I thought we still had a forum like WUWT where we could discuss the science in an amicable way amongst other people who wished to discuss the science, rather than wringing their hands at the latest disaster which has nothing to do with them.
That was until the NewZealand Earthquake.
Suddenly the whole of humanity(at least white English speaking) is supposed to behave as if it were personally involved in a disaster which on a global scale was being repeated in famine, disease, motor accidents, etc. etc. all over the world in the same day (but in countries and amongst people who don’t access the internet). That still strikes me as totally hypocritical and almost “rent a tear”.
As I said, this is the reason why so many people are convinced of global warming … they are being bombarded by natural disasters, being forced by the mainstream media and internet bullying to believe they are personally involved (which I am not) and in attempting to rationalise this increased exposure (rather than risk) and personal involvement, they adopt irrational explanations like global warming to explain why they feal there are more disasters.
So, whilst it may seem hard hearted, the only way I personally can help to defeat this man made warming scam, is not to treat each and every disaster as if it is the end of the world for the whole of humanity.
Well put Mike.
But even if one accepts the premise that this is a proper forum for voicing emotional support, and expressions of compassion, there is something dreadfully unhealthy about the lack of global perspective in the current discussion.
For instance, in view of the ongoing conflagration in Libya,, which is killing thousands, and promises far worse, it strikes me as obscene that New Zealand is launching a global fundraiser to pay for its relatively picayune economic losses.
Thoughtful observers around the world could hardly be faulted for considering this a prime example of rampant ethnocentricity. I wonder, would this fund accept donations from the coffers of the mercenaries being paid by Gaddifi to murder his rebellious subjects by the hundreds?
This is NOT the discussion I wanted (or want) ever to see in this forum. And that is precisely why I spoke out earlier against the emotional outpouring that has inundated the usual rational and fact-based debate here.
If takes nothing more than some personal link to the issue to lose all sense of scientific detachment and succumb to apologetics, rationalization, and ad hominem attacks on those of differing opinion, the prospects of human survival in the face of a major global catastrophe (such as a sudden onset ice age, for instance) are dim indeed!
Surely we can set a better example than this!
The Pacific plate is on the move, probably accelerated by global warming. It is pivoting New Zealand east to west in the south, around the Cook Straight axis, with the Australian plate doing the same west to east in the north. The scale of movement is most great at the extremities – Southland and Northland – so the different pace of turn per latitude causes earth fault slippage for releasing the twist force. ( See TeAra.govt.nz geological-exploration Australian/Pacific plate techtonic simulation + Pushing New Zealand’s Boundaries land formation simulation GNS youtube & NZ 4M-year deformation.mov projection * * * * * )
The Canterbury earthquake phase begun on 4 September 2010 is a stress energy release very typical of the Chatham Rise geological feature extending far to its east. The twisting of the southern South Island – west against its plate impact crumple compression spine (longitudinal Alps) – is what tensions the more porous and brittle Chatham Rise volcanic land mass (extending centrally and latitudinally east) and causes this family of earthquake faults. The energy is transferred by these latitudinal strikes, northwards from here, into north Canterbury and on to the Hikurangi Trough.
Ref. Major slip near Kaikoura closes State Highway 1 until next week “The possibility that the slip was caused by earthquakes is not being ruled out” NZTA + SH1, railway near Kaikoura closed until Thursday at best “Heavy rainfall, and not recent earthquake activity, is being blamed for the slip” The Press 12Sept + Sep 15 2010 at 4:15 pm (NZST) Magnitude 3.5, Wednesday, 42.49S 173.82E Focal Depth 5 km, 10 km south-east of Kaikoura, 60 km north-east of Cheviot, 110 km south of Blenheim, 150 km north-east of Christchurch + Sep 15 2010 at 5:01 pm (NZST) Magnitude 4.2, Wednesday, 42.47S 173.75E Focal Depth 11 km, 10 km south-east of Kaikoura, 50 km north-east of Cheviot, 110 km south of Blenheim, 150 km north-east of Christchurch + Sep 15 2010 at 5:38 pm (NZST) Magnitude 4.2, Wednesday, 42.49S 173.76E Focal Depth 10 km, same locale + combination of rain and earthquake confirmed as slip cause RadioNZ News 16Sep10 + 20Oct10 3:15:32AM Magnitude 2.78 Depth 21.47km northeast of Kaikoura.
http://www.infohelp.co.nz/quake.html
Did not take long for the GW word to be used.
Well I doubt C02 caused it, but plenty’s been made commenting on it.