Christchurch Earthquake

[Emrico1]

You're seriously risking your ass riding a bike in this country

[Pitchey]

You're seriously risking your ass posting in these forums

Fixed.

[nick247]

You're seriously risking your ass riding a bike in this country

 
It is interesting that after this earthquake people will be very worried about earthquakes, yet the real danger is simply being on New Zealand's roads.

[Emrico1]

It is interesting that after this earthquake people will be very worried about earthquakes, yet the real danger is simply being on New Zealand's roads.

So true.

To put it into perspactive, I have spent the majority of my time in NZ, in Gisborne where I'm sure the drivers are worse than average for NZ.
You'd have to be mad to cycle here. MAD I SAY.

[Ngati_Grim]

OK we've booked a truck for Sunday  13th. If we have 2 or 3 people who are free to help load and unload the heavy stuff, they will be amply rewarded with beer and pizza. PM me or bitchimom if you're free and keen

 
Damnit, sorry, I can't. We've a nightmare on our hands trying to get the 1st year courses in place for Monday

[Ngati_Grim]

Say g'day to Drew Hill for me, Emrico.

He's an art teacher at the High School, Sculptor and a keen surfer.

[Speakman]

looks like i'll be free woodawg. pyro, you driving?

[Ngati_Grim]

Codex: http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/27405.html

[Growler]

Holy shit, i got power back on at work finally. 6pm on friday thou...

tomorrow will be the start of trying to stop the sinking ship!

[UncleArk]

Codex: http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/27405.html

 
I saw some of this activity... Vehicles being picked up on the prongs of a forklift then being carted off, bouncing up and down on the uneven roads, to a waiting  truck...

I couldn't help but wonder how much damage was being done to the floor pans / under-carriages of some of these vehicles...

[Machpants]

Cars have undercarriages?

[danmct]

Cars have undercarriages?

 
they do if they belong to daisy duke

[Codex]

Codex: http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/27405.html

 
will look into it, cheers

[Zenith]

No firm news yet but the Chch earthquake is going to be made to look small by the Japan earthquake, 8.9 magnitude, brace for some bad news for japan, on the tv now

[Pitchey]

Damn. Poor buggars have just finished helping us in ChCH, now they have to go back and pick up the pieces of their own homes.

LATEST: Numerous injuries have been reported after Japan was struck by a magnitude-8.8 earthquake off its northeastern coast, triggering a 4-metre tsunami that washed away cars and tore away buildings along the coast near the epicentre.

In various locations along Japan's coast, TV footage showed severe flooding, with dozens of cars, boats and even buildings being carried along by waters. A large ship swept away by the tsunami rammed directly into a breakwater in Kesennuma city in Miyagi prefecture, according to footage on public broadcaster NHK.

Numerous injuries were reported by police in Japan's Miyagi prefecture, Kyodo news reported, including many people attending a school graduation ceremony at a hall in east Tokyo after the roof caved in, the Tokyo Fire department said.

Officials were trying to assess possible damage from the quake but had no immediate details. There was also a warning of a 10-metre tsunami following the quake, Japan's biggest in 7 years.

The quake that struck 2:46 p.m. was followed by a series of aftershocks, including a 7.4-magnitude one about 30 minutes later. The US Geological Survey upgraded the strength of the first quake to a magnitude 8.9, after initially saying it was 7.9

The meteorological agency issued a tsunami warning for the entire Pacific coast of Japan. National broadcaster NHK was warning those near the coast to get to safer ground.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii said a tsunami warning was in effect for Japan, Russia, Marcus Island and the Northern Marianas. A tsunami watch has been issued for Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and the US state of Hawaii.

The quake struck at a depth of 10km, about 125km off the eastern coast, the agency said. The area is 380 kilometres northeast of Tokyo.

In downtown Tokyo, large buildings shook violently and workers poured into the street for safety. TV footage showed a large building on fire and bellowing smoke in the Odaiba district of Tokyo.

Black smoke was also pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama's Isogo area.

"The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks," Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said.

"It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago."

Passengers on a subway line in Tokyo screamed and grabbed other passengers' hands. The shaking was so bad it was hard to stand, said Reuters reporter Mariko Katsumura.
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In central Tokyo, trains were stopped and passengers walked along the tracks to platforms.

Footage on NHK from their Sendai office showed employees stumbling around and books and papers crashing from desks.

Thirty minutes after the quake, tall buildings were still swaying in Tokyo and mobile phone networks were not working. Japan's Coast Guard has set up task force and officials are standing by for emergency contingencies, Coast Guard official Yosuke Oi said.

"I'm afraid we'll soon find out about damages, since the quake was so strong," he said.

Japan's defence ministry has deployed eight military planes to check damage

Japan's northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people. Last year fishing facilities were damaged after by a tsunami caused by a strong tremor in Chile.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

- AP and Reuters

[Zenith]

pretty gut wrenching watching it on TV, don't know what the quake damage is but the tsunami damage is massive

[Lvl10]

Very horrible my brothers gf is japanese luckily her family is in the far south so hopefully everyone is ok! obviously there will be a large loss of lives but looking at the pictures the buildings must be extremely resilient to quakes as this quake was 10 -20 times the force of the chch one

[Tiwaking!]

No firm news yet but the Chch earthquake is going to be made to look small by the Japan earthquake, 8.9 magnitude, brace for some bad news for japan, on the tv now

Damn. Poor buggars have just finished helping us in ChCH, now they have to go back and pick up the pieces of their own homes.
LATEST: Numerous injuries have been reported after Japan was struck by a magnitude-8.8 earthquake off its northeastern coast, triggering a 4-metre tsunami that washed away cars and tore away buildings along the coast near the epicentre.

Im already over the moon man. fucking ambulance chasing charlatan.

Nice job predicting this earthquake Ken Ring you ambulance chasing fucking fuck.

[Growler]

I was quite amazed when I saw this table, listed top quakes in the  world, not by richter or mercalli, but by Peak Ground Acceleration/gforce.

Peak ground acceleration (PGA) is a measure of earthquake acceleration on the ground and an important input parameter for earthquake engineering. Unlike the Richter and Moment magnitude  scales, it is not a measure of the total energy of an earthquake, but  rather how hard the earth shakes in a given geographic area.

So even though the 6.3 was weaker than the 7.1 we had, the earth shook almost 2 times harder, there have only been 3 earthquakes on record above 1g, 2 of them in Chch.

So the 1964 Alaska quake that was a 9.2 and the second biggest on record was only 0.18g. Can any nerds explain the differences in this in some laymans terms?

Data from here

[Pitchey]

Nice job predicting this earthquake Ken Ring you ambulance chasing fucking fuck.

Just what I was thinking!

[Pyromanik]

That is some crazy interesting shit Growler...

[Codex]

shit's insane

[TofuEater]

We're all going to die!

[SteddieEddie]

Nice job predicting this earthquake Ken Ring you ambulance chasing fucking fuck.

He did say there would be another quake on the ring of fire, which has happened. He was 9 days out.

I can understand people venting their anger out on him, but if he BELIEVES he has some sort of system that works in quake prediction you would have to warn people

[TofuEater]

I think the biggest problem is that he uses the moon phases to predict activity - and while i'm not averse to that, giving the obvious observances of the moon affecting things such as the tide, it does stretch credibility as nine days is more than a quarter of the moon's cycle.
 
Meanwhile in other news - you can follow Perry here as he runs to Christchurch.