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December 24, 2011
Relentless quakes in Christchurch
Christchurch, New Zealand, has suffered its fourth day (and 5th, 6th, and 7th big quakes) in barely over a year of what continues to be a brutal onslaught of seismicity. It began in September, 2010, with a magnitude 7.0 earthquake outside of town that caused billions of dollars in economic losses. The vigorous aftershock sequence of that quake was punctuated in February by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake east of the …
June 15, 2011
More quake footage from NZ
Yesterday I posted a few videos of the large pair of quakes that struck Christchurch once again on Monday. Since then a few more have surfaced showing the 6.0 as it happened. Clearly even the earthquake-worn residents of Christchurch were startled by such a large temblor. This man’s home suffered some damage in the 5.5 earlier, so he set up a camera while he went about his business. Sure enough …
June 14, 2011
A fresh temblor in the Canterbury sequence
Christchurch, New Zealand has been plagued by earthquakes for the past year, ever since a M7.1 ripped along a previously unrecognized fault in the Canterbury Plains last September. This quake produced a vigorous aftershock sequence, including most notably a large triggered quake (with its own vigorous aftershocks) directly beneath Christchurch. The city has been reeling from that M6.1 quake for four months, beleaguered by aftershocks and duly warned (as of a week …
March 11, 2011
Liquefaction in an aftershock
I stumbled upon a fascinating video a couple of weeks ago showing what happens to sand volcanoes as seismic waves pass. This would have fit in either my aftershocks or my liquefaction posts from last week, but it’s both stunning and unique so I decided it deserves a post of its own. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv–8ybjnwk This New Zealand man is filming sand blows forming from liquefaction of a school yard in …
March 4, 2011
Liquefaction in New Zealand
One of the ubiquitous features of the nice flat sedimentary plains where people tend to prefer building cities, suburbs, or at least vast agricultural tracts, is that they generally liquefy when subjected to strong shaking. The results include serious instability of the “solid” ground, flooding, and ejection of silty water in places it would certainly be best not to have water being ejected. Here’s an example from Christchurch Here’s a …
March 2, 2011
Videos of the 7.0 and 6.3 in Christchurch
Other than that first video I linked to in the last post and the many recordings of aftershocks, very little footage of the 6.3 occurring exists. I have found only this, in addition to the frequently replayed clips from a liquor store and of the cliff collapsing. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdAWoj9s9dA] There’s also a decent video of the early morning September quake impressively heaving cars around in a dark driveway. If anyone knows of …
Aftershocks in Christchurch
No doubt most people’s most recent earthquake-related thoughts pertain to last week’s temblor in New Zealand. Of course as we’ve all heard this was a particularly unfortunate event because of the location and modest depth of its source: merely ~5km below the streets and only a few measly kilometers from the city’s dense and populous center. We’ve all also heard it described as an aftershock of a bigger quake last …
