You are browsing the archive for New Zealand Archives - The Trembling Earth.
November 18, 2016
Complex, compound New Zealand earthquake – Part 2: Faulting by Day
Reeling from the massive M7.8 earthquake at midnight, its relentless aftershocks, and the continuing coastal threat of tsunami, New Zealanders awaited daylight on Monday to see the full extent of the destruction. The bizarre seismic records observed overnight had raised confusion and speculation about what faults were to blame for this earthquake. With an epicenter on land but also a several meter tsunami, it was clear that some complicated combination of on- …
July 21, 2013
Earthquakes shake NZ capital
New Zealand is at it again–or as usual–seismically. This time a series of strong earthquakes in the Cook Strait culminated Sunday morning with a M6.5 between the South and North Islands, shaking the national capital of Wellington and exacting a fair bit of damage around the region. The shocks started with two oddly steep convergent events, a 5.3 Friday morning and a 5.8 in the wee hours Sunday morning. Each …
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 …
