5.8-magnitude quake hits New Zealand city: USGS

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: AFP

A 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit the New Zealand city of Christchurch Sunday, seismologists said, sending goods flying off shelves.

Sirens could be heard going off around the South Island city and at least one building was evacuated, according to media reports.

The quake struck a week before the fifth anniversary of a deadly 6.3 tremor in Christchurch which killed 185 in one of New Zealand's deadliest disasters.

The latest quake was measured at 5.8 by the US Geological Survey at a shallow depth of about eight kilometres (five miles) and centred 17 kilometres west of the city.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/5-8-magnitude-quake-hits-zealand-city-usgs-011110344.html;_ylt=AwrXgCMQ379WnBIA2XzQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTByb2lvbXVuBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--

[AllyCat]

1. God's punishment for signing the TPP there?

[cstanleytech]

3. No, simply something that tends to happen when you build a city in a seismically active area.

[AllyCat]

4. I know, I know. Just turning the Fundie logic around and using it for

Something terrible hat has happened to humanity

[wickerwoman]

15. Yeah, not very big or clever

to the people who live there and have put up with 20,000 earthquakes and aftershocks in the last five years.



CTV building where 115 people were killed



Ruins of Christ Church cathedral



Liquefaction on Ferry Road

Oh, and BTW it's a week away from the five year anniversary of "the big one" that killed 185 people. So yeah, stay classy.

[AllyCat]

17. When I wrote this, there were no reports of

Death or serious damage. I should have used the sarcasm smilie as I was making a jab at the evangelists who love to blame unrelated 'wrongdoing' for the horrible devastation brought by their invisible demon on innocent people.

Of course, what has happened is a terrible tragedy. God had nothing to do with it.

[Recursion]

2. Christchurch had that huge quake in, what, 2011?

I was at a nonprofit with some workers over there when it hit and we couldn't get in touch with them for about a week. Oy.

[xocet]

5. You are correct - 2011.

Christchurch: after the earthquake, a city rebuilt in whose image?
New Zealand's second largest city was struck by disaster in February 2011 – and debate still rages as to whether it should ape its old character or develop a new one


A recent international visitor to New Zealand's second largest city asked Coralie Winn why there were so many diggers in its centre tearing down buildings. It seemed they had little notion that less than three years earlier, Christchurch had endured a series of earthquakes that destroyed the city's infrastructure, homes and communities.

The most violent quake, on 22 February 2011, killed 181 people. Thousands more were made homeless, and an area more than four times the size of London's Hyde Park was deemed uninhabitable. Less than three years on, the diggers that rattle about Christchurch's gridded streets are a constant reminder of how far there is to go to recreate what was once there. "People don't comprehend," Winn said. "Rebuilding a city is complicated."

In the wake of the earthquake, Winn helped found an organisation devoted to creatively inhabiting the vacant gaps where those buildings once stood. Gaps are expected to keep opening up for at least another five years, as 70%of the central business district's (CBD) buildings come down.

Many locals cannot remember what the central city used to look like. Gravel quadrants have replaced multi-storey buildings, creating lines of sight through the city that never existed before. Many of the buildings that still stand are boarded up, with steel fencing around them as they wait to be sold or demolished. The main strip of bars and restaurants that lined the river, and was the site of the city's main entertainment hub, is now an empty lot.

...

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jan/27/christchurch-after-earthquake-rebuild-image-new-zealand

Christchurch Quake Map

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

[wysi]

7. The fifth anniversary of that quake...

... is a week from tomorrow. That's a day I shall never forget.

[xocet]

9. My condolences to the people of NZ and to those who were affected by that quake.

I must imagine that it was a heart-rending day.

How has the city recovered?

From what I gathered from the news, the tram came down, Charlie B's rocked on its foundation, the Dux was severely damaged, the Cathedral partially collapsed and Bailey's may have been severely damaged. After looking at Google maps images of Christchurch around 2014, it looked like many entire blocks of buildings had to be removed. I have also wondered about other places like the Botanical Gardens, Rutherford's Den, the tunnel to Lyttelton, etc.

[wysi]

10. You clearly know your way around here :)

I saw some pretty terrible things that day that I never thought I would see.

The major damage was to the city centre and eastern suburbs, and Lyttleton. Most of the city centre had to be demolished (you're right about the huge tracts of buildings) and is only slowly recovering. The Cathedral sits damaged to this day with no resolution about its future. The site where Charlie B's stood is a great big empty now, and the Dux is not yet back in operation (the Arts Centre will take a couple more years to finish). Whenever something opens, like the Theatre Royal or the Art Gallery, it seems like a minor miracle. But driving anywhere is terrible as roads are closed for works all over the place, sometimes for months on end.

Miraculously the Lyttleton Tunnel was completely intact.

My house is in Burwood and was badly damaged though livable. It's now all fixed up and looking good, and it held up quite nicely yesterday.

[xocet]

12. Thanks for the update on those many places that I had known.

Also, it is good to hear that your house held up well. May there be no more serious quakes.

New Zealand is one of my favorite countries. The people I met were wonderful. There are so many beautiful things to see and places to go - Arthur's Pass, Kaikoura, Kaiteriteri, Dunedin, etc. Locally to Christchurch, there's the nice, short hike around Quail Island. New Brighton beach is fun, too.

I have just been looking at Christchurch on Google maps. It looks like the Hoyts approximately at the end of Colombo (just outside the city center) must have been destroyed, too. Hopefully, the science center reopened somewhere else.

Lastly, after searching, I cannot believe that the Wizard is still active. Rumor had it that he retired - or so I thought.

[wysi]

13. The wizard...

... is still going though less active these days. I think he intended to retire, but hasn't.

The whole building which housed Hoyts and Science Alive is now gone. Just the other week it was announced that Science Alive will have a new home in town, but not sure when.

Sounds like you got to travel around the South Island quite a bit. I've lived here for 13 years now and it's a great place to live and bring up a family, though it feels (and is) miles from anywhere. My house is five minutes from the beach, which is a big plus for me. Where I grew up in MA I was three hours from the nearest beach.

[xocet]

14. I was fortunate to have the chance to see quite a lot of parts of the South Island...

I spent several months on the South Island and then went over to Sydney and stayed there for a couple of months. Both Christchurch and Sydney were fantastic experiences.

It sounds like you have a great situation going over there. Was it difficult to get the proper visa?

[wysi]

16. I'm an academic...

... so no, not really. I lived in Australia (Queensland) for a couple of years before coming over here, and working visas apply to both countries (there is freedom of movement between the two countries), and for academics these are pretty easy to get. I was in Australia long enough to take on dual citizenship (due to a loophole in US citizenship), so now I don't need any visas at all. I can even vote here.

[xocet]

18. That is really cool!

[wysi]

6. We're all fine down here...

My house is about 10 kilometres from the epicentre of today's quake. A few things fell over but the house held up well. We just moved back in December after being out for six months while it was being repaired from the extensive damage caused in the 2011 quake.

We're just wishing the aftershocks would calm down a bit.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. 'Severe' earthquake close to Christchurch results in injuries and cliff collapse

Several people have been injured and a cliff has collapsed into the sea on New Zealand’s South Island after a “severe” magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck close to Christchurch, which is still rebuilding following a devastating tremor in 2011.
...
Paramedics were responding to a number of calls from people who fell over during the tremor. One building in the city was evacuated after items tumbled down and computer monitors smashed.

The shaking also dislodged part of a cliff in Taylor’s Mistake, to the south-east of the city centre. The dramatic moment was captured by Thomas Wieberneit, who posted it on Twitter.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/14/injuries-and-cliff-collapse-after-severe-earthquake-strikes-close-to-christchurch

[wysi]

11. There was a group of kids doing surf lifesaving training right near there...

... who almost got taken out by the rockfall. Thankfully they hid in a cave and escaped it.