Double Earthquake!... and now an 8.8 Mag + Tsunami in Japan

[Chuft-Captain]

The following page has before and after satellite imagery of some areas of the central city which graphically illustrates some of the damage:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics/christchurch-quake/beforeafter.htm

This blog has a lot of info and street level images (But also unfortunately, a rather large number of advertising):
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/earthquakes/another-quake-rocks-christchurch-new-zealand/

Another similar blog: http://lulu-pages.blogspot.com/2011/02/moment-new-zealand-quake-shook-city-ti.html

.. and this image taken a few seconds after the quake struck shows dust rising over the central city:
(click for large image)

0vZbD.jpg

[t00fri]

CC,

thanks for providing all this most informative docs about the quake! Actually, I sincerely hope that no-one of your family or close friends were badly injured!?
Also did you experience a large amount of damage as to your own belongings?

How did you escape without being hurt?

Fridger

PS: Actually in the German media, we were having a quite detailed coverage of the quake & destructions.

[Chuft-Captain]

Thanks Fridger,

The majority of people did survive of course because the buildings they were in did not collapse (at least not immediately, giving a chance to evacuate).

Before and after shots of our Anglican Cathedral where up to 20 people are still missing presumed dead:



and the Catholic Cathedral after the quake, where to my knowledge thankfully no-one was hurt (as it had been closed to the public since the Sept 4th quake):

[MiR]

It's going to be very difficult for our city to recover from this, and the costs of this event may well take our country into a second recession, so please send the following official NZ Govt appeal link to as many people as you can:

http://christchurchearthquakeappeal.govt.nz/

Good idea to post this here.
We have to help if we can. Or our human nature will degenerate more and more to selfish, phlegmatic and overcloned beauties, like Well's Eloi in the movie "Time Machine".

Michael

[Chuft-Captain]

Thanks for your thoughts,

I'll also put a link to the NZ Red Cross here in case anyone wants to support them.
I am always impressed by the actions of the Red Cross all over the world (they are almost always the first to arrive at any humanitarian crisis, whether that be war or natural disaster) : http://www.redcross.org.nz/cms_display.php

Here are a couple more before and after shots of the cathedral in the center of the city:

ChristchurchCathedral.jpg

... and now:


Luckily no-one was at home when a boulder rolled down the hill and straight through the front door of this house, through the children's bedroom...


... and out the other side of the house, ending up here:


A car crushed by a fallen beam:


Buildings in the central city - damage seen from above:


Dust clouds rising in Tuam Street:


This site seems to have a lot of images: http://xmb.stuffucanuse.com/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=7508

Roads near the city's rivers suffered more damage than most:



Effects of liquefaction in the suburbs:


Although buildings and properties can be repaired or replaced, human losses can not.
It's especially heart-wrenching when those victims are just babies:

Baxtor Gowland was born only 13 days after the September 4 quake, only to die in this one at the age of 5 months:

and Jayden Harris who was only 8 months old died when a TV fell on him:

[Chuft-Captain]

PS. I just felt another after shock, the 3rd I've felt personally today. - It's now 16:40 NZST, and it felt like about a magnitude 3.6 to me. - This should show up at the geonet website in about 1/2 hour or so:
http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/recent_quakes.html

UPDATE: OK, it was a 3.9: http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/3474036g.html

( Estimating the magnitude of aftershocks from the amount of shaking became a bit of a local sport after the September quake, although I must admit, the novelty is wearing off for a lot of people now. )

Rockfalls are another hazard (click to read the article):

[MiR]

...many years ago I read a book written by Sir Edmund Hillary about mountaineering in Antarctica, NZ and the mountain, Mount Everest...
Of course, at first it was just an entertainment for me. But, more and more, between the lines, I realized what a great person he was.
So, if his character represents only half the New Zealand mentality - Do not worry! You will do it. And better, more stable and more solid than before. I'm sure.

You know, this forum is full of helpful people. But NZ is far away. Therefore, we can only give moral support. And a bit of money of course.

Michael

[Chuft-Captain]

A couple of videos from YouTube which you've probably already seen.

This one seems to be mostly the first few seconds / minutes after the initial quake while people are still evacuating buildings and also shows them reacting to the first aftershock
(Parental Guidance recommended with this one):


This is much later showing various effects like liquefaction and cracks in roads:


Many of us are very lucky that we happen to live or work in areas that suffered less shaking than other areas, so the ground and buildings suffered much less damage.
For example, while the worst shaking was 2.2 x G's, where I live I think it was measured as only about 0.3 G's.

Some good news is that the Cathedral has been carefully searched now by USAR, who were expecting to find up to 22 bodies, but found no-one.

BTW. Chris L, If you read this, I hope you're aware of the potential for a mega-thrust earthquake off the coast of Seattle, and that you're up to date with your emergency evacuation kit.

[Hungry4info]

Double Earthquake!... what does it mean?

[Fenerit]

Unfortunately, NZ is in the middle of a bad geologic situation: the Alpine fault and several less famous faults on one side and the Kermadec trench on the other.

[Reiko]

Sure glad I don't live in Japan anymore.

[MiR]

Double Earthquake!... what does it mean?

recently, it was raining here very heavily. Not one day or two days; it rained over two weeks! Heavy rainfall is nothing special here in Germany... But I asked by myself "what could that mean...?" Well, it simply means I had to buy myself an umbrella...

Now, double earthquake means: You are living in a part of the world with strong tectonic forces. And that means you have to build your buildings twice as stable as in calmer areas. That's the challenge...

Michael

[Hungry4info]

@ MiR:
I'm almost positive it was a poke at this joke. double rainbow.

[MiR]

@Hungry4info:

Are you really sure...?
I do not like jokes while people are suffering in these disaster areas.

So, thanks a lot for your explanation.

Michael

[Chuft-Captain]

Sure glad I don't live in Japan anymore.

Just saw breaking news here that a 7.9 [EDIT: upgraded to between 8.4 and 8.9] quake at 10km depth has just struck 120km from Japan (40 minutes ago).

(I'm not joking!)

Reports of damage to buildings in Tokyo, and there's a warning that there may be a 6 meter tsunami.
[EDIT: Tsunami's between 4 and 7.3 meters have been reported on the NE coast]

Just seeing live footage on TV right now showing what looks like tsunami damage in Kamaishi. A ship has apparently hit a bridge in the harbour as well. [EDIT: reported as a 50cm tsunami striking the north coast]

On Utube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKh-QaeT6rc

NOTE: Japanese USAR specialists have only just left Christchurch after helping us in the search for survivors of our disaster. I imagine that they are probably still in the air on the way back to Japan hoping for a well earned rest.

[Chuft-Captain]

I am watching more live coverage on our news showing cars floating upside down over a weir and presumedly out to sea.
This looks like it may be another tragedy in progress. I hope there were no people in those cars.

EDIT: Upgraded to 8.8 (highest magnitude ever recorded in Japan since recording started 140 years ago!)


There was also footage of at least 3 ENORMOUS tsunami waves.
Tsunami scare the s**t out of me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKh-QaeT6rc

[Chuft-Captain]

The more coverage I see of this, the more horrific it gets. Whole coastal cities and farms and everything engulfed.
I just hope that everyone heeded the warnings and had time to evacuate inland or to higher ground. (I know that Japan has very well practiced civil defense procedures because earthquakes and tsunami are relatively common there, so let's hope it all worked as planned, otherwise I fear thousands have perished.)

This is extreme, even by Japanese standards!

Tsunami arrives at Sendai airport: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DSSssHxm4Y

More: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XpSLiPHLPk

[ajtribick]

Brings home how fortunate those of us who don't live within range of tectonically-active regions are.

[t00fri]

Quite horrible to watch the struggle of the people in Japan, a country where the preparations for such catastrophic events is as good as it can be!

I've been many times in Japan, including a several months stay. I only experienced a weak quake (4.4) once for < 30 secs. Today's disaster demonstrates once more that the people (along the "ring of fire") really live on a time bomb all the time...

Fridger

PS: While it is said that such severe quakes tend to increase the chances for further quakes within a radius of around 1000km it is usually denied that there might be long range correlations as well.
Like is it accidental that the quakes in Christchurch/NZ and in Japan happened in such a narrow time window? I was always convinced that such long range correlations (along the ring of fire) do exist...

[Reiko]

I've finally been in touch with my parents and they are ok. My mother said that was the scariest quake she has experienced and they are in Tokyo away from the center of it.