7.0 earthquake hits Christchurch, New Zealand

[Astronuc]

The frequency and magnitude of earthquakes are way down, but they nevertheless persist.

7,500 earthquakes shake resolve in NZealand city
http://news.yahoo.com/7-500-earthquakes-shake-resolve-nzealand-city-161243790.html

Seismic activity has picked up from the North Island, NZ, to Kermadec Islands to Tonga to Papua New Guinea.

And the swarm continues off Fukushima.

Something has definitely changed along the western side of the Pacific plate.

 

[StevieTNZ]

It is certainly not over for Christchurch.

Just today - http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/12446921/two-buildings-collapse-as-quakes-hit-chch/

 

[apeiron]

A 5.8 then a 6. On a known fault that is out in the bay - but likely runs right through the central city. Quite bad news if it unzips anymore.

 

[wukunlin]

ugh, there is no end to this

 

[apeiron]

This is a great graphic mapping the unzipping of a maze of small faults over the past 15 months. Four major events moving from one side of Christchurch to the other.

http://www.canterburyquakelive.co.nz/QuakeMap/Swarms/

About 5% of the city's housing stock, and 60% of its central city, is having to be pulled down and rebuilt or relocated.

Luckily the place is about the best insured against earthquake damage of anywhere and the rural economy is going great guns.

Christchurch has an interesting history because it was a planned "liveable" city, a bit of a utopian dream set up by Victorians reacting against the growing squalor of urban industrialisation.

This means it has always had good bones and a lot of social capital - people were proud and protective of a place they had designed. Here, the local metropolitan authority still owns the port, the airport, the electricity grid, the broadband cabling.

Now it has suffered the worst natural disaster damage of any reasonable sized city (it's only 350,000 pop). But there is also the opportunity to rebuild it green, modern and re-energised.

For instance, all the small scattered IT firms are gathering together to form an IT campus right in the central city. The high tech health sector wants to do the same, as does the foreign student language learning industry.

About 50 years of city evolution is going to be packed into the next 5 years.

 

[Astronuc]

Violence of tremors stuns experts
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/christchurch-earthquake/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502981&objectid=10775150

. . . .
University of Canterbury geologist Mark Quigley said the magnitude 5.8 earthquake generated ground accelerations of 1g in New Brighton, on the eastern side of Christchurch.

. . . .