Earthquake hits Christchurch NZ

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A 6.3 magnitude earthquake has hit Christchurch New Zealand.

Unlike the one last year, it seems there have been fatalities in this one.

Live Updates: Live updates: Christchurch quake | NATIONAL News
  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    Wow, lot of disaster for a 6 mag -but it was only 5 km deep. For the last 24 hours there've been a lot of smaller ones around the world running at under 10 km deep. What is scary to me is that the last time I saw that we started having major ones at depths of 10 and 35 km. Hope this is just run off from all the mag 7s a few months ago.

    Godspeed to New Zealanders. My condolences to those who have lost family and friends.
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    • Profile picture of the author whateverpedia
      Originally Posted by HeySal View Post

      Hope this is just run off from all the mag 7s a few months ago.
      According to what we're getting on Aussie news channels, it is an aftershock from last years quake(s).

      They're also saying that there'll be aftershocks from this one as well, so it may be a while before it settles down.
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      • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
        Originally Posted by whateverpedia View Post

        According to what we're getting on Aussie news channels, it is an aftershock from last years quake(s).

        They're also saying that there'll be aftershocks from this one as well, so it may be a while before it settles down.
        NZ Prime Minister says it's a separate earthquake from September, not an after shock.

        The Government has confirmed that they have taken out a new insurance since September, so they are covered to make repairs.

        Latest is 65 have lost their lives.

        Mostly from CBD.

        Best,
        Ewen
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  • Profile picture of the author Patrician
    Wow. My prayers go out/back to the people of NZ.

    It is amazing how much damage was done by a 6.3

    When I saw that much damage was 6.9 in the San Francisco earthquake 1989 i think. it was from under water -

    i don't know the stats Sal how deep or whatever but the reason it broke the Bay Bridge was supposedly because it was from under water (?)

    I forget the details I was in shock for years.

    I hope the aftershocks are much less and that it wasn't a for (fore?) shock (they always scare ya with that concept) - either way you never know what to expect.
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  • Profile picture of the author aasthatrivedi
    Its really the most painful time for the people whose dear ones have died in this tragic disaster, i pray to god for those people.
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  • Profile picture of the author Simo
    What Ewen says is exactly right.

    If you want to get a handle on just how bad the earthquake is check out these links:




    So far Airport closed, mobile hospitals/morgues being set up in CBD, some buildings flattened. Death toll very likely to rise from 65. Major Search and Rescue underway in CBD. Utter devastation. Deputy Prime Minister says "One of New Zealand's darkest days."

    For updates these sites will give accurate info:

    Breaking & Daily News, Sport & Weather | TV ONE, TV2 | TVNZ

    TV3 - Watch free full episodes On Demand, Show Info, TV Guide and Competitions

    Deputy Prime Minister "A significant number of sites in the CBD where people remain trapped"...

    ..."force of Earthquake above uppers limits which modern buildings could withstand"

    unreal...
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  • Profile picture of the author gareth
    Lots of people are still trapped tonight. Christchurch has been having quakes for months now - I reckon they should shut the city down for a few months.
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  • Profile picture of the author Simo
    Good call Gareth,

    Mayor of Christchurch just said on live TV that City could be shut down for a significant period of time
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    The structural damage for a 6.3 is just unbelievable. I don't know much about AU but am wondering if that town had very old buildings or if the AU building code is not up to standard? The difference between the 7 mag in Haiti that killed so many and the 8 mag in Chile that only killed around 500 even at that strength is testimony to the difference building codes can make.

    This quake just baffles me.
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    • Profile picture of the author Fraggler
      Originally Posted by HeySal View Post

      I don't know much about AU.
      NZ make take offence to that comment. :p

      They reckon that the buildings were weakened from the quake and aftershocks last year which lasted quite some time.

      AU does have strong building codes though. That's why the damage was minimal in the huge cyclone (and the regular large ones) that just hit.
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      • Profile picture of the author John Henderson
        Originally Posted by whateverpedia View Post

        A 6.3 magnitude earthquake has hit Christchurch New Zealand.

        Unlike the one last year, it seems there have been fatalities in this one.
        I was getting pretty choked up when I saw the TV pictures this morning.

        Originally Posted by Patrician View Post

        It is amazing how much damage was done by a 6.3
        The thing to remember, is that the Richter scale increases "exponentially" -- which means that each point on the scale isn't an addition to the last point, it's a multiplication of the last point. In the case of the Richter scale, the factor is 30 -- so, a magnitude "4" is 30 times more powerful than a magnitude "3", a "5" is 30 times more powerful than a "4" and so on.

        That's why this NZ earthquake (magnitude 6.3) has flattened buildings whereas the Chilean earthquake of Feb 2010 (magnitude 8.8) slightly altered the axis about which the earth rotates...
        Chile quake may have tipped Earth's axis - CNN.com

        Originally Posted by Simo View Post

        Death toll very likely to rise from 65.
        It will probably reach into the hundreds...

        Originally Posted by HeySal View Post

        The structural damage for a 6.3 is just unbelievable. I don't know much about AU but am wondering if that town had very old buildings or if the AU building code is not up to standard?
        New Zealand (not AU) will still have old colonial buildings built by the British in the middle of the 19th century, although this morning's TV pictures showed a modern office building that had collapsed like a pack of cards.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    I was online yesterday at a forum and a NZ guy posted as soon as the quake hit and he wrote that it was bigger then the last ones.

    Then people started posting on Twitter about how powerful it was.

    Shallow quakes can do a lot of damage, even small ones, is that right?
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  • Profile picture of the author andie99
    Such terrible earthquakes. The last time I check, it has already 65 casualties.
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    • Profile picture of the author wonderd
      I dont understand why these things happen, I mean I understand how they happen, but WHY!?
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  • Profile picture of the author gareth
    They have been having quakes for months so the buildings are deteriorated already.

    This wont be the last quake for sure.
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    Oops, don't know how I got to AU from NZ.

    Shallow quakes can do a lot of damage, even small ones, is that right?
    Depth makes a LOT of difference. That is why I was able to compare Chile and Haiti -- those quakes were 10 and 35 km deep. When a quake as large as 7 mags hits at around 2 - 300 km deep, it' feels like a 5, maybe a 6 - but at 4 - 500 km deep, nobody might even realize there was a quake.

    5km made all the difference in the world -
    In 2010 - most large quakes (and many smaller ones) happened at 10 and 35 km deep - we've seen the results of the 8 mag and the 7 mag, but the 7 mag in Haiti leveled a very unstable town sitting right ON the epicenter.

    If this NZ quake had been 10 - 35 km deep, it wouldn't have caused much destruction at all. All I can say right now is that I've never seen a 6.3 mag quake do this much damage in the 5 years of tracking I've done. Never. Only one person has died in a 5 mag in those years, and very rarely do people die in a 6 mag - even a strong 6 mag. This quake was just bizarre.

    Now here's a warning to you who live in area prone to quakes. In the last month I have been seeing quakes LESS than 10 km deep - a LOT of them. If you live in a quake zone, make sure you are prepared for a bad quake. We are in a magnetic pole shift (no, we're not all gonna die - they happen every hundred years or so and sometimes more frequently) and matter is starting to align in the area of the shifting pole now - which means the crust is shifting. That's why all the quakes at 10 and 35 km depths last year - this year it's the upper ground so get yourself prepared. That means KNOW what the weaknesses of your home are and the one you work in daily. There are building experts that can do a walk through and tell you what areas will receive the most damage. If you work in an unsafe building, get a new job if the company refuses to have the building reinforced. I know that's drastic - but it may save your life -- and nobody should have to work in unsafe conditions anyway.

    I'll be putting together my yearly earthquake report - and updating annual number averages for mags 5 and over this week so stay tuned for that if you're interested.

    All I can say is that epicenter must have been smack under the new buildings.

    I'm sure NZ has got to have a strong building code considering the geology and EQ history down there.
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  • Profile picture of the author caseycase
    Praying for you guys in NZ.
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  • Profile picture of the author sim22
    Just after Xmas I heard a dog barking for about 10 minutes which I've never heard before. I never hear dogs barking where I live.

    I jokingly said to myself I bet theres going to be an earthquake as Id read about dogs sensing quakes right before they occured. About half an hour later we had a 4.6 earthquake and people were phoning the radio station and it made the news.

    I wonder if there were a lot of dogs barking before the New Zealand quake?
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    • Profile picture of the author QuickSurf
      Yeh def a combination of shallow depth of the quake and structural weakening of buildings from previous quakes and aftershocks. Thats a lot of damage for a 6.3
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  • Profile picture of the author John Henderson
    Channel 4 news in the UK reported that it was only 4km deep and the epicentre was directly underneath Christchurch.
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    There was a big earthquake in CA that hurt a city BADLY!

    Share your memories of the 1971 Sylmar earthquake | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times

    I lived quite a distance away, and several of my fish died because the aquarium toppled over. My mother was SO insistant that I stand in the door jamb, that I couldn't save the poor fish.

    Anyway, california responded by establishing a HUGE change to the building code, and had some of it retroactive, so freeways were retrofitted, etc... Too bad some idiot didn't realize that earthquakes can move the land over 6" EASILY, and it gets worse as the object gets bigger. THAT little oversight about 23 years later damaged the infrastructure, and killed at least one person. Luckily it happened VERY early in the morning.

    TODAY, in california, 6.x is a bit of a joke.

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    The September NZ earthquake was bigger on the richter scale but it was 30km away from the CBD and something like 10 or 20km deep.

    This one was smaller on the richter scale but was only 10km away from the CBD and 5km deep.

    Death toll this morning is at 75 with 300 people still missing. They are in contact with one woman who is trapped under her desk in a building that collapsed and they are currently trying to rescue her.

    They've interviewed people that had left work to go have lunch and then saw their building collapse and to think if it had happened minutes earlier or later they would have been inside - incredible stories.

    There have been people that have had limbs amputated to be able to free them - such awful stories

    My thoughts and prayers are with all those people in New Zealand!
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  • Profile picture of the author sim22
    Lucky it wasnt in the sea as there'd be a tsunami to contend with adn probaly make even more damage.

    I think Japan could be next they have a very active area for earthquakes adn san fancisoco is long overdue a big one.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kurt
      Originally Posted by sim22 View Post

      Lucky it wasnt in the sea as there'd be a tsunami to contend with adn probaly make even more damage.

      I think Japan could be next they have a very active area for earthquakes adn san fancisoco is long overdue a big one.
      Some geoligists predict if an identical earthquake that in SF in 1906 hit now it would kill over 200,000, due to the population increase.
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      • Profile picture of the author HeySal
        Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

        Some geoligists predict if an identical earthquake that in SF in 1906 hit now it would kill over 200,000, due to the population increase.
        Yeah, Kurt - for some reason people just love parking houses and buildings on major fault zones. Then they worry that quakes are getting worse. They don't have to be worse if you're living right on top of the fault that's going to slip.

        The one that is going to be mega deadly is the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which is due to blow. They give it anywhere between now and 50 years from now. That will take down Seattle, which is built on sediment so it really doesn't matter what the building codes are - a 8 or 9 mag there (which is what that area produces) can also put a major tsunami on the coast of Japan and down the Western coast of the states (read: San Fransisco) and inland up the Columbia gorge to Vancouver WA and Portland OR.

        It's also a bit scary -- I can't remember the zeros, it was either tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years ago a quake in Central OR dropped one side of a fault line 2,500 feet - in an instant. Can you imagine that happening now with the population numbers what they are? How much does building code matter when a building is in free fall for a couple thousand feet?

        Mom Nature is one mega furious wench sometimes.
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        • Profile picture of the author Karen Blundell
          my heart goes out to all families and friends of those who lost their lives in this latest NZ earthquake. My prayers are with you.
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        • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
          Christchurch's tallest building set to collapse.

          Witness said it has slumped 3 meters in 10 minutes.

          Several internal floors have collapsed.

          The hotel is believed to have nobody inside.

          Best,
          Ewen
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        • Profile picture of the author seasoned
          Originally Posted by HeySal View Post

          Yeah, Kurt - for some reason people just love parking houses and buildings on major fault zones. Then they worry that quakes are getting worse. They don't have to be worse if you're living right on top of the fault that's going to slip.

          The one that is going to be mega deadly is the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which is due to blow. They give it anywhere between now and 50 years from now. That will take down Seattle, which is built on sediment so it really doesn't matter what the building codes are - a 8 or 9 mag there (which is what that area produces) can also put a major tsunami on the coast of Japan and down the Western coast of the states (read: San Fransisco) and inland up the Columbia gorge to Vancouver WA and Portland OR.

          It's also a bit scary -- I can't remember the zeros, it was either tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years ago a quake in Central OR dropped one side of a fault line 2,500 feet - in an instant. Can you imagine that happening now with the population numbers what they are? How much does building code matter when a building is in free fall for a couple thousand feet?

          Mom Nature is one mega furious wench sometimes.
          Yeah, building codes can never be perfect, but they DO help. Anyway, it is shocking about pllaces like san francisco which admmittedly has more form than function, and malibu. Malibu is known for having fires that destroy vegetation which allows the rains to cause mudslides. And some homes are built on the sides of cliffs, even on stilts OVER the cliff! One wonders how THEY can pass current building codes. And san francisco has some tall narrow homes built on narrow streets that go up hills.

          Steve
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          • Profile picture of the author Kurt
            Originally Posted by seasoned View Post

            Yeah, building codes can never be perfect, but they DO help. Anyway, it is shocking about pllaces like san francisco which admmittedly has more form than function, and malibu. Malibu is known for having fires that destroy vegetation which allows the rains to cause mudslides. And some homes are built on the sides of cliffs, even on stilts OVER the cliff! One wonders how THEY can pass current building codes. And san francisco has some tall narrow homes built on narrow streets that go up hills.

            Steve
            Building code is just part of the equation. The type of soil those structures are built on can be an even bigger deal. In SF, there's all types of soil, but the biggest concern are those built on sandy soil.

            As a matter of coincidence I just saw on TV that you can tell what type of soil NYC has underneath simply by looking at the skyline. Areas with lower rising buildings have less stable soil than areas with high rises. IOW, you can tell what kind of soil is under a buildiing simply by looking at the height of the building.
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            • Profile picture of the author seasoned
              Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

              Building code is just part of the equation. The type of soil those structures are built on can be an even bigger deal. In SF, there's all types of soil, but the biggest concern are those built on sandy soil.

              As a matter of coincidence I just saw on TV that you can tell what type of soil NYC has underneath simply by looking at the skyline. Areas with lower rising buildings have less stable soil than areas with high rises. IOW, you can tell what kind of soil is under a buildiing simply by looking at the height of the building.
              Some building codes DO take soil into account, and specify changes in footing and foundation options based on it. ALSO, they specify that soil should be leveled and packed to a certain degree. Heck, my fathers home had a BIG footing because of the ground. As I said though, codes aren't perfect. Heck, a 3.0 earthquake could cause a falling rock, like one of those videos showed, and IT could maybe kill hundreds.(Imagine a big rock rolling over a dozen yards, and hitting the glass side of a hotel conference center!) That is a LITTLE bit of a stretch, but it shows how nothing can PREVENT deaths. The code CAN greatly mitigate them though.

              AND, if they build a highrise, the footing will be MUCH larger, the machines will be larger, and you can BET they will pack things better and make sure.



              Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author MrPolarZero
    whoa, that is kind of creepy. I hope no one has been hurt.
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    Simo,

    Nobody is doubting that it was bad. The slymar earthquake killed over 60 people. destroyed buildings, and even ripped up the streets. YEARS later, you could see the effects. Sylmar was measured as being about 3 times as bad but:



    I don't like the way this starts out looking like fiction, but it really happened. The second one is longer, but the first is more to the point.

    This WAS a long time ago. They speak of GOVERNOR Reagan, and Nixon. Most earthquakes AFTER this were pretty minor, all things considered.

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Patrician
    Speechless about the post above this (EwenMack).
    what can there ever be to say at a time like this.

    a million prayers...








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  • Profile picture of the author Simo
    Just an update for those who are following this:

    75 confirmed dead
    300 still missing
    Bloomberg suggests $16 billion worth of damage to the city
    National state of emergency declared
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  • Profile picture of the author bilzz
    Bad news . ! many people injured and died pray to GOD.save our life
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    It takes a bunch of 3 mags to result in structural damage, even shallow. Those quakes you won't even FEEL if they are more than a couple of km deep. If they cluster you can get some cracks in your foundation or walls etc from them but it would take continuance of them to actually keep the cracks growing. 4 mags will do that kind of thing, though. Like I said, though - only one person has been killed in a 5 mag in that many years and I'm not sure how - if they were hit by something, fell, had a coronary, or what. I think that someone up the thread a ways already pointed out the fact that the strength grows exponentially with the magnitude.

    What you need to look at when you talk about sediment is not how "packed" the earth is - it's where's bedrock? If you have 50 feet of sediment on top of bedrock, there is no way a building code will help that building in a massive quake. It will stabilize it for smaller quakes of 4 and 5 mags. But above that you need that building sitting on something very firm. Period. I'm not sure HOW Chile runs their building codes or what their rock structure is, but that 8.3 last year barely touched them in terms of what it could have done. It was stronger than the one in Haiti by at least a few hundred times, but I don't remember exact stats on that. I do know if Haiti's had been 8.3 you would have seen millions of deaths instead of a quarter of a million.

    It's the same anywhere that is vulnerable to disasters, though - look at the 2004 tsunami. That was as bad as it was for one simple reason - people completely stripped the natural environment on that coastline. There were towns up and down the coast in areas that they hadn't stripped the coastline and they had the same tsunami hit with much less damage resulting. Had that city been built leaving even 100 feet of natural vegetation between it and the water damage would have been half what it was.

    People are dying because nobody wants to make any sense. They want to save money and they want aesthetics. NZ is prone to quakes and I'm a bit wondering why the owner of that hotel and a few other building owners had not fixed structural damage from the last major quake in that area. They had to have known that their buildings were compromised. The geology down there isn't a secret either. They have quakes. Period. They aren't going to go away.

    IMO it's not natural disasters that are the problem - they have always happened and people know they happen in certain areas. The problem is that we got stupid and started building high rise buildings and populating the planet to levels that we have to have high rises to hold everyone - no matter whether the area is just damned too dangerous for high rises or not. Sentience doesn't do one whit of good without the intelligence to back it up.

    I would like to see that building owners who neglected to fix structural damage from the last quake have enough heart to at least pay for people to bury their dead and for medical aid for their wounded.

    My condolences again to those in NZ who lost family and homes in this quake.
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    • Profile picture of the author seasoned
      Originally Posted by HeySal View Post

      It takes a bunch of 3 mags to result in structural damage, even shallow. Those quakes you won't even FEEL if they are more than a couple of km deep. If they cluster you can get some cracks in your foundation or walls etc from them but it would take continuance of them to actually keep the cracks growing. 4 mags will do that kind of thing, though. Like I said, though - only one person has been killed in a 5 mag in that many years and I'm not sure how - if they were hit by something, fell, had a coronary, or what. I think that someone up the thread a ways already pointed out the fact that the strength grows exponentially with the magnitude.
      I specified 3 only because they are SO small here that I don't know if they are even reported. You often barely feel them. They COULD trigger a rock to fall though, and THAT could be destructive. So I tried to emphasize that codes can't be perfect. TANKS aren't even built 100% for conventional war. How could we ever build a whole home even to THOSE standards?

      What you need to look at when you talk about sediment is not how "packed" the earth is - it's where's bedrock? If you have 50 feet of sediment on top of bedrock, there is no way a building code will help that building in a massive quake. It will stabilize it for smaller quakes of 4 and 5 mags. But above that you need that building sitting on something very firm. Period. I'm not sure HOW Chile runs their building codes or what their rock structure is, but that 8.3 last year barely touched them in terms of what it could have done. It was stronger than the one in Haiti by at least a few hundred times, but I don't remember exact stats on that. I do know if Haiti's had been 8.3 you would have seen millions of deaths instead of a quarter of a million.
      Agreed, but the bigger the footing, and the more dense the packing, the less likely liquifaction will be a factor. It ALWAYS will be, but to varying degrees. It could be like quicksand, or ALMOST as good as rock.

      People are dying because nobody wants to make any sense. They want to save money and they want aesthetics. NZ is prone to quakes and I'm a bit wondering why the owner of that hotel and a few other building owners had not fixed structural damage from the last major quake in that area. They had to have known that their buildings were compromised. The geology down there isn't a secret either. They have quakes. Period. They aren't going to go away.
      EXACTLY!

      IMO it's not natural disasters that are the problem - they have always happened and people know they happen in certain areas. The problem is that we got stupid and started building high rise buildings and populating the planet to levels that we have to have high rises to hold everyone - no matter whether the area is just damned too dangerous for high rises or not. Sentience doesn't do one whit of good without the intelligence to back it up.
      EXACTLY! Some high rises are actually placed into a large channel with ISOLATION! They are BUILT to slide, etc... to try to ride out earthquakes. SOME, like the citicorp corporate building, have a weight to try to provide countering force to handle storms. making them SOLID is best, but it is hard enough to do with a small home, and may be impossible with high rises.

      I would like to see that building owners who neglected to fix structural damage from the last quake have enough heart to at least pay for people to bury their dead and for medical aid for their wounded.

      My condolences again to those in NZ who lost family and homes in this quake.
      Same here on both counts.

      Steve
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      • Profile picture of the author Patrician
        In San Francisco the Transamerica Pyramid is built on wheels. LOL so it can roll down Montgomery Street if an earthquake hits. (Cone Head on the loose)


        Originally Posted by seasoned View Post

        EXACTLY! Some high rises are actually placed into a large channel with ISOLATION! They are BUILT to slide, etc... to try to ride out earthquakes. SOME, like the citicorp corporate building, have a weight to try to provide countering force to handle storms. making them SOLID is best, but it is hard enough to do with a small home, and may be impossible with high rises.

        Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Patrician
    In San Francisco they required building owners to do retrofits on the foundations.

    During the 1989 earthquake I was in an 80 year old building on the top floor (6) (at the bottom of Nob Hill.) (very solid rock)

    Thank God the owners had followed the law - the building came through with only a little damage - the elevator shaft bent and no elevator for weeks - the chimneys all fell down (on my ceiling) and that is what traumatized me more than anything - every brick sounded like a bomb (and not knowing what it was). No electricity for close to a week.

    Pretty much nothing too serious except in areas like the Marina district (which was built on landfill - duh) only the 'gingerbread' fell off of buildings. (which could kill you if you were outside) (see my 3rd video above in post #31)

    To this day I drive around with suitcases in my trunk, sleeping bag, etc in case no house to go to - I had nightmares for at least 10 years...

    I never run out of drinking water, toilet paper, candles, flashlights or batteries. (you couldn't find these in any store for weeks)

    It taught me to be prepared and don't take anything for granted. 'Tomorrow is not promised'
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  • Profile picture of the author juliapattrick
    Tribute to those people who lost their lives and may their souls rest in peace.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    Death toll is now at 98 with over 200 still missing. I watched a couple of interviews tonight of people who had been trapped in a building and been rescued - that would be so terrible and it would just haunt you for such a long time.
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  • Profile picture of the author Charann Miller
    I've been watching news coverage all day hoping they pull more survivors out of the rubble, the mood is very somber in our house right now as our hearts are with those waiting to hear of their loved ones.

    I remember climbing up the cathedral as a kid when we visited Christchurch, can't believe it's in ruins.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob D
    Just to provide some more info on the Chirstchurch situation. We shifted to the city about a month or two before the first quake in September. At that time the fault that ruptured was unknown. From a natural disaster point of view Christchurch was probably one of the safest cities in the country(Our largest city, Auckland is build between 3 Volcanoes FFS).
    That september quake - you could hear it coming. It was a 7.1 and it lasted a long time. But it rumbled into the city and built from a wobble to a voilent shake. We've been having aftershocks for 6 months and a large number of buildings would have been compromised by those. Tuesdays earthquake came from nowhere, we've have a fairly quite February with a few sporadic 3's, but nothing to really get you out of your seat.
    Most of the buildings that were destroyed were quite old. Christchurch building bylaws apply to new buildings. The old buildings had to conform to 33% of the new standards. After the September quake that was immediately upgraded to 66%. That still wasn't enough.
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  • Profile picture of the author gareth
    Auckland actually has about 16 volcanoes smack in the middle of it.

    Rangitoto Island
    Mt Albert
    Mt Victoria
    My Wellington
    Mt Eden
    Mt St John
    ... blah blah blah

    I am sick of watching the earthquake news now - it makes me sick to watch especially after the flood saga in Ozzie.

    The actual insurance payout will wipe out unemployment here and cause an economic boom which is perversely good news.

    So the end result will be resoundingly positive but the disaster sucks.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kurt
      Originally Posted by seasoned View Post

      Yeah, building codes can never be perfect, but they DO help. Anyway, it is shocking about pllaces like san francisco which admmittedly has more form than function, and malibu. Malibu is known for having fires that destroy vegetation which allows the rains to cause mudslides. And some homes are built on the sides of cliffs, even on stilts OVER the cliff! One wonders how THEY can pass current building codes. And san francisco has some tall narrow homes built on narrow streets that go up hills.

      Steve
      Originally Posted by seasoned View Post

      Some building codes DO take soil into account, and specify changes in footing and foundation options based on it. ALSO, they specify that soil should be leveled and packed to a certain degree. Heck, my fathers home had a BIG footing because of the ground. As I said though, codes aren't perfect. Heck, a 3.0 earthquake could cause a falling rock, like one of those videos showed, and IT could maybe kill hundreds.(Imagine a big rock rolling over a dozen yards, and hitting the glass side of a hotel conference center!) That is a LITTLE bit of a stretch, but it shows how nothing can PREVENT deaths. The code CAN greatly mitigate them though.

      AND, if they build a highrise, the footing will be MUCH larger, the machines will be larger, and you can BET they will pack things better and make sure.

      Steve
      And some building codes do take into account tall, narrow buildings on narrow streets.

      My point was bringing up something new to the discussion that hadn't been mentioned which was that the soil underneath the building has as much, if not more, impact on earthquake damage as do building codes.
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      • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
        Professor Yeats, professor emeritus of geology at Oregon State University in Corvallis,

        "Tuesday's quake caused so much damage because the shaking was very intense.

        Peak ground acceleration was up to 2.2 times gravity.

        "Most cities in the world would be totally flattened by such acceleration," Yeats said.

        He sung the praises of New Zealand's building codes following the earthquake in September.

        Best,
        Ewen
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        • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
          The impact of the earthquake on Christchurch is bigger than the economic toll that Hurricane Katrina had on New Orleans in 2005, Prime Minister John Key said.

          Best,
          Ewen
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  • Profile picture of the author adeleadams
    The latest news shows "The confirmed death toll from the New Zealand earthquake stands at 147, with over 50 "unaccounted for".
    May all of them rest in peace.
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  • Profile picture of the author kyne
    Yes I have heard about this, It is really bad...Hope everything will be fine soon.and all the people recovered soon from this tragedy..
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  • Profile picture of the author illumina8
    I found an interesting video about the behind the scenes to the earthquake.. conspiracy to over throw New Zealands economy?
    YouTube - HAARP CHART FOR NEW ZEALAND QUAKE ~ EVIDENCE OF MAN MADE DISASTER FEB 21.2011
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    • Profile picture of the author HeySal
      Originally Posted by illumina8 View Post

      I found an interesting video about the behind the scenes to the earthquake.. conspiracy to over throw New Zealands economy?
      YouTube - HAARP CHART FOR NEW ZEALAND QUAKE ~ EVIDENCE OF MAN MADE DISASTER FEB 21.2011
      Considering the plate boundaries that area sits on, this kind of thinking just doesn't hold any water with anyone who knows anything about quakes. The magnetic pole is shifting -- matter aligns with that pole. When it gets far enough from the geographic pole, land shifting occurs. There were many massive quakes at the beginning of last year in plate boundary areas. Normal process - no human intervention needed.
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      Sal
      When the Roads and Paths end, learn to guide yourself through the wilderness
      Beyond the Path

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  • Profile picture of the author Cameron Fulton
    I am in Christchurch at the moment. (It is my home town) We are still getting earth quakes now. Get one about every 1-2 hours. We are sitting at something like 9000 quakes since the very beginning. The city isn't well at all. The whole east side of the city is in a swamp. Its crazy. Just to give you a heads up on whats happening down here. Glad im only here for a flying visit!!

    Cam
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  • Profile picture of the author tueymo
    Godspeed to New Zealanders.
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    get this, was over in Christchurch at and IM seminar the day before the big one.

    and also in fiji before a nasty quake hit there.

    Obviously the man upstairs like someone here. phew.

    I have family over in NZ, so I hope they stay safe. Thoughts and prayers guys, thoughts and prayers.
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