If you want to know where the earth shook in Christchurch - part two

Yes - ok - so I have a morbid sense  of humor as well as a statistical bend!  I keep some statistical data relating to various games (rugby) and sports teams as well as other interests!
From the Geonet site you can download a file and extract some very interesting facts.  Here are some of the juicer bits . . . . .

From Sat 4 Sep 4.30 am to Tuesday 21 Sep 1.36 pm the following took place:

A total of 830 aftershocks at magnitude 2.5 or higher were recorded.

In the first full three hours since the big one struck on Saturday at 4.30 am, there was a total of 23 aftershocks recorded - thats one at almost every 8 minutes (on average) apart.

No aftershock of magnitude 6 or larger has been recorded (thank God for small mercies)
There were 10 aftershocks of size 5.0 or larger (up to 5.9)
There were 104 aftershocks of size 4.0 or larger (up to 4.9)
There were 480 aftershocks of size 3.0 or larger (up to 3.9)
There were 235 aftershocks of size 2.5 or larger  (up to 2.9)

Some of the smaller ones were at a very low depth and if you were close enough you could feel them as long as you stood / sat still.

One shake has been recorded at a depth of 83km, the next "lowest" depth was 50km, the next 29km and after that it gets interesting.
581 have been recorded at a depth no lower then 10km with a walloping 316 recorded at 5km depth exactly.
18 shakes were no lower then 1 km down

The "new" fault-line has not moved for some 16000 years (wish it had stayed like that for another several hundred years) or was that meant to be 1600 years??  We have trees growing in NZ that are older then that - some of our mighty Kauris can grow beyond 2000 years!  [confirmed as last ruptured 16.000 years ago - bugger - it had to do it now!]

Our City council has been reported as stating that near enough of 15000 chimneys have either fallen down completely or needed removing.  With a larger number of houses no longer using open or enclosed fires - that would be a estimated 10% (or larger) of all homes within Christchurch as having been affected!

Since 1848 there have been a total of 14 earthquakes at magnitude 7 or larger with 4 of them doing major damage to our cities ( - Napier in particular - it had the largest loss of life recorded  M 7.8, Hawke's Bay, February 3 1931)
The largest ever recorded earthquake (since European colonization began) in New Zealand stands at M 8.2, Wairarapa, January 23 1855

The Main alpine fault is due to rupture (statistically speaking) within the next 70 years - PERSONALLY - I think it should wait for at least 40 years- as I be either dead by then or so old I wont care much for it :P 
When it does rupture it will be at a magnitude of 8.0 or larger - most likely around 8.5 - and no doubt it will do some serious damage around Canterbury!

http://www.gns.cri.nz/Home/Learning/Science-Topics/Earthquakes/New-Zealand-s-Fault-Lines/Major-Faults-in-New-Zealand/Alpine-Fault

Hmmm on that note - no sense in hanging round and waiting for it.
I better go now - and enjoy the rest of my life . . .

Hang tough Canterbury



 

Earth-shattering birthday

yes well
see - it is tradition amongst our family to cook one special meal - as per birthday persons request for the celebrant.

My son - 'Dad - we havn't had a meatloaf for a while . . . . . . . '
Me - 'Does this constitute a official request???'
Son - 'Well you do make one mean lean meatloaf . . . . . '

Thus I had no choice - my late buddy teenager son requested a meatloaf in teenager babble- so we went out and bought  some stuff and next day I slaved in the kitchen for hours to create our usual earth-shattering birthday meal meatloaf!
I cannot possible give you a recipe - it changes - depending on what's in the larder - and that depends largely on the seasons and budget!! (and the mood of the chef!!) - but meat and mushroom and garlic and eggs and crumbs and urm - other stuff were in it - not to mention herbs and spices.

They say the Stig looks better - dunno . ....

It even turned out ok - and was by all accounts delicious enjoyed by all and the glasses of white urm - medicinal drinks - helped to temporarily forget the earth moving beneath our dining table.  It tasted great even on the next day when I polished the left overs off with a luncheon sandwich!!

Christchurch earthquake - if you want to know where the land shook

Well - I am no techno geek person and am just thankful there are others out there who have time and brain on their side. Seems the Geonet website had 80 million hits on the  Wednesday
after the major 7.1 earthquake struck Christchurch.
With there beeing heaps of aftershocks I did wonder where exactly they might, or more to the point where excatly the land shook. This is where I am thankful to the techno geeks - check out these two links

I found the google map link particular urm - well scary.  One shake was to close to home - like less then 1 km from home - eeek

The google map works from the given longitude etc and maps it for there, while the wholemeal uses a timeline - u can scroll day by day and see the frequency/depth and magnitude . . . .

http://maps.google.co.nz/maps/earthquake map

http://wholemeal.co.nz/~malc/darfield-earthquake-timeline/

acknowledgments need to be made to Malcolm Locke and whoever made the Google map!!

Large earthquake in New Zealand

It is funny how things work.  As a result of the Earthquake we have a few doors that are now - urm sticky as we call it.
Basically they are out of alignment and so shut with some difficulty.
They need a "hobel" or be sanded back in some places. Sighs - more work to be done at some stage.

The kennel door on the other hand had always been difficult to shut properly, mainly because I am a crap builder and niceties didn't come into it.  The door always was out of alignment.  It was one of these jobs I was meant to fix when I get around to it.
NOW  it shuts perfectly smoothly!!
Go that earthquake - thanks for lending a hand!!

Meant to say this earlier
After the initial large shake and the after shock that knocked power out - we all congregated on our drives and roads - checking in with neighbours and making sure everyone was ok and there was no property damage - as well as trying to avoid being hit by possible collapsing houses.  Of course - with no power so there was no lights and the cloudless night became extra special to see - the stars where just amazing - sparkling away. A timely reminder that amidst fear and destruction there is rich beauty of God's tapestry that can and does hold us in total awe.
Anyhow - here is us standing on the drives and yakking away to folks when the guy who delivers our daily news paper came past and expertly delivered the daily quota.  Normally he comes in the early wee hours and his is a lonely drive through the suburbs - however on this day (and I suggest it will be his only time) he had a gallery of people cheering him on, giving thumbs up sighs and clapping for the fact that THE PRESS always gets through. I wonder if he knew what had gone wrong at that point - if he knew why we all were standing outside in our pj's??  Not that I actually then read much of this days delivery - we were rather busy with other things.
In a way - the fact we could see the sparkling stars (and felt re-assured that the world is still standing) and got THE PRESS delivered - it showed that life does carry on and we just have to get on and make the best out of a bad situation.
It (if you pardon the expression) jolted us  back to reality and normality.
After all - there was a important rugby match to be played in England (yep the Black Ferns won!!)




 

7.1 Earthquake in New Zealand Christchurch

Astute readers will notice this covers the period from Sat 4.35 am through till Wed 7.49am. Naturally there have been more aftershocks since then and we are running a Quake Bingo competition on Facebook on the final total by this Sunday. Still it is a bit unnerving!!!

I have to say - everyone is getting tired of being shaken.  Restful sleep is a rare commodity.
On the other hand - because we had lost our water supply and needed to boil everything - Mamabear and everyone else had to have a sponge-bath (remember those?).  ^^   
So here she is in all her glory and I sneak up behind her - wrap my big soft fur paws around her urm - well u know and softly whisper into her ear -
"uhu - Darling - shall we make the earth urm, u know, move right now???"

The Reply was unequivocally straightforward --
"no! - No  NO   N O    NOOO   NOOOOOOOO"

So the shake has impacted in an other area as well

Bugger

0_^



 

Earthquake Christchurch New Zealand

some footage - courtesy of the net and some enterprising folks





then there is this



and this



and some pic's to see

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/earth quake photos/


hmmmm I need a song to cheer me up -
how 'bout a song from
Elvis - "All shook up"??
or - Beach boys - "Good Vibrations"
or - Elvis again - "Shake, rattle and roll"
or - Phoebe Snow - "I am standing on shakey ground"
or - Carole King - "I feel the earth move under my feet"

Choices, choices - hmmmmmm eeny meeny miny mo . . . . . .
Wait - what other songs would fit in with this theme? ? ? ? ?

(Then -- next day)

Found some other appropriate songs
or - Led Zeppelin - "How bout Rock and Roll"
or - "Shaky Leaf" - but cant remember who sings it?!
or - Michael Jackson - "You rock my world"
or - Grease soundtrack - "Rock and Roll is here to stay"
or - Abba - "If it wasn't for the nights"
or - Andy Kim - "Rock me gently"
or - Eddy Arnold - "Tumbling Tumbleweed"
or - Bill Haley - "Rock around the clock"
or - hehehe Bill again - "The saints rock and roll"
or - Billy Joel - "It's still rock and roll to me"
or - Queen - "We will Rock You"
or - Brenda Lee - "My whole world is falling down"
or - Brenda again - "Rock on baby"
or - Danny and the juniors - "Rock and roll is here to stay"
or - David Essex - "Rock on"
or - Dean Martin - "Memories are made from this" (hmmm not sure about that one)
or - Donna Summer - "I don't want to get hurt"
or - Duanne Eddy - ""Some kinda earthquake"
or - Elvis Presely - "Rubberneckin" (sadly that happened a lot)
or - Elvis again - "Rip it up"
or - Gregory Abbot - "Shake you down"
or - Jerry Lee Lewis - "Whole lotta shaking going on"
or - Kitty Kallen - "It could happen to you"
or - The Ivy League - "Tossing and turning" (at night wondering when the next shake comes)
or - who sings this --> "I love to rock and Roll"
or -

Shaken Papabear

ps here is a timelaps graphic an enterprising student has put together - it makes me fearful JUST watching that!!

http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/

7.1 earthquake in christchurch nz

yawns - this was one of the most disturbed nights in decades
We continue to have aftershock's  and the website lists the "small one's " at 3.2 - enough to be felt and since the big one we had, that would be total 47 and counting.  Some are big enough to move and toss ornaments of the shelves again.

To be honest I think everyone had enough.
Hmmmm

MONDAY 6th September 1pm and we had 86 strong after tremors!! The rate we are going we get a ton by the time its time to take the scouts to their first aid course, which is rather timely and appropriate.


 

7.1 earthquake in Christchurch nz

ok - a sunny day dawned and all sort of seems ok
Clean up mode
Get clean water - add 3 tablespoon of bleach into 20 liters of water.
Check food supplies
check batteries
check house
check nerves - NERVES????  eeeek

hmmm how to wash when u have little or no water and no power

One thing though - I need to get a little camp gas cooker and store that away for future use.

See - NOTHING can stop a wedding in NZ - not even a 7.1 earthquake.  






 The water slopped out during the shake - lost a third of it from the tank - very lucky though as the table clearly did not survive the shaking - its leg standing at a very peculiar angle - thats a write off




 part of the mess






righto - I shall try and get some sleep and then maybe tomorrow load a couple of pics from the outside of our house

Be good


 

7.1 Earthquake shakes Christchurch

N  e  v  e  r    e v e r     underestimate mother Nature

http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/recent_quakes.html

http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2010/09/massive_earthquake_shakes_new.html

Man this was one scary bugger of a shake - it went on and on and on and on . . . . . .
We lost power for a while and water and we need to boil our water!
At least we still have a house intact and no structural damage and plenty of food.

Meanwhile - life does go on and we went to my "daughters" wedding and so amongst the carnage we had a lovely time celebrating with her.
pics to follow.

Amazingly - given the size of the shake we have so far no recorded deaths
We sure dodged a bullet on this one

 One very shaken Papabear