7.1 magnitude earthquake hits Christchurch NZ

[kiwigeo]

Quake touches 'every family' - national | Stuff.co.nz

Home city for me......hope any other kiwis in here living in that part of NZ are ok.

[artme]

Not a good happening at all.

FFrom what I've read the loss of life has been minimal. That's good, but sympathies to those so effected.


Trust the damage isn't too vast and that things will be brought to rights quickly.


Cheers to all our Kiwi mates, thinking of you!

[kiwigeo]

No loss of life..yet but a few injuries mainly as a result of falling chimneys etc. If the quake had happened during daylight hours it would have been a different story.

One significant phenomenon Im noticing from alot of the photos is soil liquifaction happening in alot of the beach side suburbs where the soil is basically sand. One friend has had his whole house sink 300mm on its pile foundations...he can't get half his doors open as the bottoms of same are below ground level.

[AlexS]

Hope you and yours are all OK Kiwi.
We were in a similar strength guria in PNG, and saturated mine tailings basically had the water shaken out of them, and settled by up to a metre in places. It happened at 2 am and one of the local trainees at an outcamp roused them all and started them taking continuous water samples! They showed a slug of fresh water coming downstream after a bore caused by a small tsunami had gone upstream. Don't know if anyone had ever recorded something like that before.

[wheelinround]

Friends is supposed to be doing a month over there starting at Christchurch wonder if its off now as its road trip.

Hope all are safe and well.

Wonder how the Lynne Museum at Ashburton survived all that wood working history

[kiwigeo]

Friends is supposed to be doing a month over there starting at Christchurch wonder if its off now as its road trip.

Hope all are safe and well.

Wonder how the Lynne Museum at Ashburton survived all that wood working history

Your friend probably wont have to put off his road trip. Parts of the CBD are currently closed off but all main arterial routes should be open within a few days.

[seanz]

A miracle that nobody was killed and there's a heap of stories of lucky escapes.

All of the hand-planes stayed on the shelf in the shed.....that's my story of a lucky escape.

[Manuka Jock]

Sean ,
did the Cam burst its banks ?

[kiwigeo]

Flood banks along the Waimakariri and tributaries (Cam River is one) are damaged and effectiveness reduced by an estimated 50% but no reports of flooding from this river system.

After shocks continue with at least two exceeding magnitude 5 last night.

For those with an interest in things Geological here's a preliminary report on the GeoNet website with some good photos of the 22km long fault that appeared as surface manifestation of the main quake.

GeoNet – Darfield earthquake - GNS Science response

[seanz]

Sean ,
did the Cam burst its banks ?

Not that I noticed.....

Mostly the media has been good, indeed, helpful....buuuut there is the occasional moment of 'not helpful'......such as saying that the Waimakariri river's damaged stopbanks were being threatened by floodwaters.
There is damage to a lot of the stop-bank system and there is a lot of water about (as there often is at this time of year) but there is no present threat.
So, we'll just put flooding in the "Stuff to worry about (but not to much) basket" then.

Flood banks along the Waimakariri and tributaries (Cam River is one) are damaged and effectiveness reduced by an estimated 50% but no reports of flooding from this river system.

After shocks continue with at least two exceeding magnitude 5 last night.

For those with an interest in things Geological here's a preliminary report on the GeoNet website with some good photos of the 22km long fault that appeared as surface manifestation of the main quake.

GeoNet – Darfield earthquake - GNS Science response

Thanks for that link, the pic of the kink in the hedge really tells a story.

[kiwigeo]

Stay safe Sean,

I'm one of the lucky ones...call Christchurch my home town but dont actually live there. That said I'm saddened at the prospect of a lot of the old buildings I'm familiar with in the CBD not being there next visit.

Cheers Martin

[seanz]

Funny, Dad's family is from S.A.

I'm going to miss the way Chch used to look, I already miss the way our street in Kaiapoi looked.

[Manuka Jock]

Not that I noticed.....

Mostly the media has been good, indeed, helpful....buuuut there is the occasional moment of 'not helpful'......such as saying that the Waimakariri river's damaged stopbanks were being threatened by floodwaters.
There is damage to a lot of the stop-bank system and there is a lot of water about (as there often is at this time of year) but there is no present threat.
So, we'll just put flooding in the "Stuff to worry about (but not to much) basket" then.

Yes , the media cannot cover everything huh.
I'm getting texts , emails and online chat from one sibling up there ...when they have electricity .
She is in contact with the other 5 who live in and around Chch.
I learn more from them than I do from the news.

I'm getting curious about some of the buildings that I have worked on .
New ones , and renovations , big and small , housing , and commercial
After the last shake up some 17 years ago , we did a lot of seismic reinforcing around the town.
A few come to mind ,
The old stone Law Courts , where we gutted the interior chipped off a skin of brick , drilled in rebar starters to the wall , laid up rebar both ways to form a mesh , and sprayed concrete onto it., along with new foundations inside the old etc.
Fails Cafe, as it was , on Cashel Street, near the Bridge of Remembrance , where we laid foundation beams across the width , poured columns up to the second story roof , pitched a ply diaphragm over the existing roof structure.
And the best was working on the original Grange House at Middleton Grange School built in 1856 .
It was clay and straw cob , where we poured a found and floor inside and then stood steel box section perimeter frames up the walls , anchoring the cob to them with rods and grout cast into inverted cones drilled into the walls , and then timber framing and gib-board ,
The old house became the primary school library . I built a window into one of the walls , so that the kids can see the 'mud wall '. Put some hand made nails and the like in there too, a wee time capsule sort of thing .
I wonder if it is still standing up ok

[kiwigeo]

Jock, did you feel the initial shock down your way?

[Manuka Jock]

Yep . I was still awake . It felt like a 5 on the scale , went on for about 45 seconds .