JCC The OFFICIAL Earthquake Thread

Man, I hope the Melbourne quake was strong enough that my gf felt it. I find something hilarious about her being in California for no quake to go home to a quake, presuming that she was in range for that one.

Australia seems pretty good at those surprise earthquakes it seems. Didn't like, Brisbane have a decent one some time back?

 

[image=http://static2.stuff.co.nz/1309838484/111/5237111.jpg]

Someone check on the Hobbit set!

It also happens to be near where this happened: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatepe_eruption - a volcanic eruption that could be seen from ancient Rome and China.

 

Hmm, sort of, it was in North Queensland and it was a 4. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/15/3164783.htm?site=brisbane.

We had a semi-serious one in Newcastle in 1989 which killed 13 people. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Newcastle_earthquake ) However, it was only 5.6.

Not to tempt fate but our earthquakes are pretty quiet ones.

 

I remember the Newcastle one.

 

I think the Newcastle one is the one I was thinking of. And yeah, 'decent earthquake' in Australia isn't the same as what other areas call a 'decent earthquake'. Here, the bar is higher.

 

Where ground shaking is concerned, we own the bloody bar.

 

Well, I mean, I'm thinking that in my time in California (but including the Northern California stuff I don't usually feel) we've had 15 separate earthquakes above a 6, and 4 above a 7. (Doesn't include aftershocks, for the most part).

And even with that, I in no way envy Indonesia, Alaska, or Japan. Possibly west coast of South America too. I just know that the bar here is higher than most places, but there's a few places that routinely get much stronger quakes than LA.

 

Yeah, going by the magnitude scale ours are small compared to others, but I get the feeling people don't appreciate how shallow and violent our February quake was. The vertical ground movement was actually higher than horizontal movement, and it literally lifted the city faster than the rate of gravity could bring it down again. So while the city was still falling, the ground layer underneath was rising again, causing the layers to slam together like a head-on car collision. That's why we had total building collapses and major liquefaction. Apparently an Alpine fault quake on the plate boundary, in the region of 7-8, would cause less shaking due to the distance from Christchurch, but would shake for minutes instead of seconds.

So I dunno, at least we don't have tsunamis to worry about. They seem to cause a lot of deaths when it comes to coastal earthquakes.

 

It was at Taupo? You sure it wasn't just Mt. Doom erupting?


Edit: Oh boo. I was trying to follow this up with on of my pictures of Lake Taupo with Ngauruhoe in the background, but apparently I didn't take any photos of Lake Taupo. I've got photos of Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu...

 

Eh, Mt Ruapehu will do. I'm sure it's all related.

 

The hits keep coming:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/07/06/asia.tsunami.warning/index.html

The tsunami warning was canceled, at least.

 

Right, three of our major cities have had the biggest shakes people have experienced in years, but the scientists keep telling us it's not related and it's all normal. I'd like to believe we're just more sensitive to each earthquake in the news now... but I've never known NZ to be this shaky.

 

This is just my advice, but you should get the hell out of there. Seriously, nothing good is going on there.

 

I have an aunt who lives in New Zealand. Ever since the big one in Christchurch I've been following the earthquakes so I can try to break the news to my mother before she sees the fetish for carnage on the TV news channels.

There certainly have been a fair few quakes since the big one and I also struggle to believe that they aren't linked in some manner.

 

What, the entire country? lol.

 

sorry, meant to edit

 

What about the Hobbit? Its a little early to write that off as "nothing good"!

 

lol

 

Anyone hear from zacparis? Hope he's okay.

 

I hope his house didn't fall down again.

 

No, I'm not OK!!

It's not my house I'm worried about, it's being on the 2nd floor of this office building.

 

Second floor?

You'd better keep a parachute in your office in case you have to jump out at a moments notice.

 

It's the floor above me that I'm worried about. I doubt my desk would break that fall.

Psychologically we feel like we're under siege. They've warned us there's a possibility of a 6-7 striking in the coming months, so we're just expecting it to happen at any second. I don't feel like leaving though, a kind of fighting spirit has kicked in. I'd rather be here to help friends and family if needed.

 

Hundreds of lightning strikes off NZ

I think jp's theory is right. The aliens are coming!

 

If tripods start sprouting from the ground, send us good pictures!

Seriously though, be careful there amigo.