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Earthquakes...


The Fat Unicyclist

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So for the last hour most of New Zealand has been shaking worse than a Parkinsons patient holding a vibrator...

http://info.geonet.org.nz/display/home/2016/11/14/Severe+earthquake+strikes+South+Island

With a couple of dozen more since then too. 

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/86416268/severe-66-earthquake-hits-hamner-springs-felt-as-far-away-as-auckland

That's why I love New Zealand - This place just rocks! 

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8 minutes ago, The Fat Unicyclist said:

So for the last hour most of New Zealand has been shaking worse than a Parkinsons patient holding a vibrator...

http://info.geonet.org.nz/display/home/2016/11/14/Severe+earthquake+strikes+South+Island

With a couple of dozen more since then too. 

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/86416268/severe-66-earthquake-hits-hamner-springs-felt-as-far-away-as-auckland

That's why I love New Zealand - This place just rocks! 

Glad to see that you're safe enough to post here.  How bad was it at your home?

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20 minutes ago, John Eucist said:

Glad to see that you're safe enough to post here.  How bad was it at your home?

Yeah, I feel safe enough - we all grew up with this sort of thing, so it is expected. I'm just annoyed - probably half the country (and I mean that literally) was woken up at midnight, and since then they are coming every 5 minutes or so (see https://www.geonet.org.nz/quakes/felt) - just about the time I would be getting back to sleep! So I figured I may as well get up and wait until the aftershocks eased back. 

I shouldn't complain though, when I bought the house I knew it was only a kilometer from one of the bigger fault lines. 

The first one (at midnight) was about 200km from here, and it felt like someone had grabbed the mattress and was shaking it hard - for about a minute. Toward the end the banging started, as things had moved enough to finally fall over - we had some glassware bounce off a tiled floor, but nothing is broken (don't know how that happened). There's just a bunch of straightening up to do - books back on shelves, et cetera. 

I guess I'm just lucky the place was a mess already...  :lol: 

Or maybe this is more accurate...  :roflmao:

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It seems that some apartment buildings in Wellington may have been evacuated, and we have a tsunami warning too (which isn't a problem for me @100m above sea level).

I hope this doesn't mean my LPV workshop gets cancelled! That would suck. :furious:

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I am trying to catch up as much as I can about the information regarding the earthquake but none of our channels are covering it here because of all the political unrest following the presidential election results. I can follow online but the damage looks very significant and of course there is little to no information about possible injuries and fatalities yet because of the difficulty in getting to remote areas where reporting can be delayed and inaccurate. I hope that you will Filistin and details become more available. Again, the collective thoughts and prayers of everyone here and my family are with you and all of the wonderful people of New Zealand and the surrounding areas affected by this earthquake

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3 hours ago, Greg Spalding said:

I am just woken appear on the east coast of United StatesI'm so sorry to hear when is going on in your homeland

Please take care of yourself and your family

Our thoughts and prayers are with you

Thanks... It's just gone 6am now, so everyone here is starting the day - not that many got a good night sleep. 

From what I'm hearing, there is a lot of mess to clean up, but only a couple of known casualties nationally - which isn't too bad considering. 

But it does appear to be a lot more widespread than we initially thought - the first one seems to have shifted the pressure, which triggered several more significant quakes right up the country. 

They're downgrading the tsunami risk (for Wellington anyway), but advising people to stay away from the city...

I guess I'll start by checking the house for any damage, now that it's light, and then go for a wheel around - we'll call it stress relief.

And as people are being told to avoid the city, I expect that today's LPV workshop will be postponed too - bugger!

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14 minutes ago, The Fat Unicyclist said:

Thanks... It's just gone 6am now, so everyone here is starting the day - not that many got a good night sleep. 

From what I'm hearing, there is a lot of mess to clean up, but only a couple of known casualties nationally - which isn't too bad considering. 

But it does appear to be a lot more widespread than we initially thought - the first one seems to have shifted the pressure, which triggered several more significant quakes right up the country. 

They're downgrading the tsunami risk (for Wellington anyway), but advising people to stay away from the city...

I guess I'll start by checking the house for any damage, now that it's light, and then go for a wheel around - we'll call it stress relief.

And as people are being told to avoid the city, I expect that today's LPV workshop will be postponed too - bugger!

It is amazing there are not more casualties nationally. It does not surprise me that it is more widespread because of how close to land the epicenter was. The RING OF FIRE we'll certainly become much more active because of this very significant event measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale. For whatever reason t he TSUNAMI risk was less than originally thought because of the topography of the ocean floor in that area or whatever but that is a wonderful thing. 

Be careful if you do go for a WHEEL AROUND because I don't want you to fall into a giant crevice and sink into the center of the earth and have to live with the hobbits... We will miss you.

Sorry about the workshop being postponed

I appreciate the update

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So I'm listening to the radio and, not surprisingly, our news is more about the earthquake and less about the US election.  :D

It does seem though that we were particularly fortunate living where we do...

wHutt.jpg.6cc52bdd98a15a2f30a2372ff6010d4d.jpg

In this picture (recently shared by @zlymex), my place is just below the light blue blob - a third in from the left and a quarter from the top. The fault line literally runs along the motorway below (BTW - that's English for "freeway").

On the hill side (my side), the ground is like rock. Seriously, it takes the average Fat Unicyclist half an hour to dig a hole a fit deep. But across the motorway, it is all soft earth (once a riverbed).

I'm thinking that the movements (and subsequent effects) were a lot worse on the soft side. I'm heading that way soon, so I'll let you know how it looks...

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5 minutes ago, The Fat Unicyclist said:

So I'm listening to the radio and, not surprisingly, our news is more about the earthquake and less about the US election.  :D

It does seem though that we were particularly fortunate living where we do...

wHutt.jpg.6cc52bdd98a15a2f30a2372ff6010d4d.jpg

In this picture (recently shared by @zlymex), my place is just below the light blue blob - a third in from the left and a quarter from the top. The fault line literally runs along the motorway below (BTW - that's English for "freeway").

On the hill side (my side), the ground is like rock. Seriously, it takes the average Fat Unicyclist half an hour to dig a hole a fit deep. But across the motorway, it is all soft earth (once a riverbed).

I'm thinking that the movements (and subsequent effects) were a lot worse on the soft side. I'm heading that way soon, so I'll let you know how it looks...

That is very helpful picture and it is surprising the population density around that fault line. I'm anxious to find out what you see along your trip but please be careful

Thanks for the Google image

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35 minutes ago, Greg Spalding said:

That is very helpful picture and it is surprising the population density around that fault line. I'm anxious to find out what you see along your trip but please be careful

I think the problem comes from 1840 when they founded Wellington... Back then they didn't know as much as we do know, and having a few faultlines in play (see below) there wasn't much avoiding them. 

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRe98uB_5CnvZ-EtSQLmuN

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The Google Earth screen capture is not a picture of the fault line, just a low-res render. 

For more information:

The authoritative website for up-to-date earthquake information in New Zealand is GeoNet.

GNS Science is the best website for fault maps and surveys. They publish the maps, datasets and models that everyone else uses.

 

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30 minutes ago, The Fat Unicyclist said:

I think the problem comes from 1840 when they founded Wellington... Back then they didn't know as much as we do know, and having a few faultlines in play (see below) there wasn't much avoiding them. 

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRe98uB_5CnvZ-EtSQLmuN

That is interesting

I appreciate the map

Unavoidable in Wellington, of course

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So I'm back from a quick trip to the office... It is on the "soft side" of the faultline, and was rather a mess...

Monitors fallen over, filling cabinets on their sides, most of the crap on my desk now on the floor. The supermarket next door had a lot of product on the floor - so it's cleanup all around. 

And on the national scale, we are now hearing of two fatalities and a small number of injuries...  :(

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:shock2:  Yikes!  I just read this post... (Takes me a while to work down through the forums).  Good thing you guys are okay!  I remember the awful earthquake from years ago, and many people died in Christchurch.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Christchurch_earthquake

I was just watching an episode of Cosmos on Netflix last night talking about techtonic plates and earthquakes.  I know you're a mover and a shaker, but it might be time to consider moving to a less quakey location?

 

 

 

 

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6 minutes ago, The Fat Unicyclist said:

So I'm back from a quick trip to the office... It is on the "soft side" of the faultline, and was rather a mess...

Monitors fallen over, filling cabinets on their sides, most of the crap on my desk now on the floor. The supermarket next door had a lot of product on the floor - so it's cleanup all around. 

And on the national scale, we are now hearing of two fatalities and a small number of injuries...  :(

may those poor souls rest in peace... I guess we have to consider it kind of a miracle that's so few people were affected by this rather strong earthquake.

Again, thank you for the update

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10 minutes ago, Hunka Hunka Burning Love said:

I know you're a mover and a shaker, but it might be time to consider moving to a less quakey location?

Somewhere safer and more stable... Like the United States, perhaps?  :innocent1:

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Canada is the new black!  :wub:  With global warming, it's actually not too bad here except for some crazy snow storms and minus 32 C temperatures.  Democracy with socialist undertones!  Who says you can't have both?  We got free health care for the most part, plenty of land and resources, plenty of A&W's, who could ask for more?  It's kind of like the US without all the crazy bad stuff... but with a little bit of Russian weather thrown into the mix.

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9 hours ago, John Eucist said:

Glad to see that you're safe enough to post here.  How bad was it at your home?

@The Fat Unicyclist Glad your safe!

4 hours ago, The Fat Unicyclist said:

And as people are being told to avoid the city, I expect that today's LPV workshop will be postponed too - bugger!

The show will go on in the near future. You now have more time to prepare!

 

3 hours ago, The Fat Unicyclist said:

So I'm listening to the radio and, not surprisingly, our news is more about the earthquake and less about the US election.  :D

It does seem though that we were particularly fortunate living where we do...

wHutt.jpg.6cc52bdd98a15a2f30a2372ff6010d4d.jpg

In this picture (recently shared by @zlymex), my place is just below the light blue blob - a third in from the left and a quarter from the top. The fault line literally runs along the motorway below (BTW - that's English for "freeway").

On the hill side (my side), the ground is like rock. Seriously, it takes the average Fat Unicyclist half an hour to dig a hole a fit deep. But across the motorway, it is all soft earth (once a riverbed).

I'm thinking that the movements (and subsequent effects) were a lot worse on the soft side. I'm heading that way soon, so I'll let you know how it looks...

My God you live in a beautiful setting? Where is the quarry where the Lord of the Rings was filmed?

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1 hour ago, Rehab1 said:

The show will go on in the near future. You now have more time to prepare!

Maybe not, the new proposed date is when I will be out of town... But still working on that...

 

1 hour ago, Rehab1 said:

 My God you live in a beautiful setting? Where is the quarry where the Lord of the Rings was filmed?

So this is where I live now...  Bonus points for anyone who can correctly pronounce "Maungaraki."

And here is where the filming was. 

About 11km up the valley. 

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Visited Christchurch a couple of years ago & saw the devastation of the 2011 quake first hand - it's a very long hard job fixing the place up!

The aftermath is scary enough, let alone experiencing the earth moving under your feet but it's still something I struggle to comprehend & would appreciate feeling a mild quake.  I was in Auckland in 2008 when home (York, England) had a minor tremor so I even missed out on that!

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5 minutes ago, Kroy said:

Visited Christchurch a couple of years ago & saw the devastation of the 2011 quake first hand - it's a very long hard job fixing the place up!

The aftermath is scary enough, let alone experiencing the earth moving under your feet but it's still something I struggle to comprehend & would appreciate feeling a mild quake.  I was in Auckland in 2008 when home (York, England) had a minor tremor so I even missed out on that!

Earthquakes are odd things...  Some start with a jolt, others build from almost nothing. Some sway back and forward, some move up and down, and others roll along the ground in waves.

Most of the time they are over quickly, but the one last midnight was about 2 minutes long. It felt a bit like the shuddering you get when your ABS brakes kick in...  But it kept going for 2 minutes!  So think about that feeling and watch this video - warning: contains graphical and tragic scenes. ;)

Seriously though, think how heavy those supermarket shelves are, and how much they are swaying...

Then just as you start to relax - say 5 minutes later - an aftershock kicks in. But you don't know if it is "just" an aftershock, or a bigger one than before...  And last night they literally carried on every 3-5 minutes for the next 3 hours. In fact we just had another one now while I am typing.

Having grown up with them, I wouldn't say I was frightened - in fact I have a number of funny stories about (lesser) earthquakes - but when a four-bedroom two-storey house (weighing many times more than this Fat Unicyclist) starts rocking back and forward 6 inches or more there is quite a sense of helplessness.

And lots of thoughts in the dark about where I left my pants...  :huh:

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