Shake Rattle and Roll N.Z. earthquakes

[johnr]

This one covers some of the evacuations.

http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/kaikoura-residents-desperate-to-escape-tough-conditions-2016111719

[Muzz]

I have been over a large part of the back road to Kiakoura. It was a Canterbury BSA Owners club run up to visit Jim Swarbrick on his farm. (Jim won the 1949 Isle of Mann 500 TT.  Jim and his daughter were delightful. We camped out in his wool shed and had a wonderful time) The road was a scruffy little one lane gravel one never intended for lots of heavy traffic.

It is a great motorcycle road now John. Gets tighter up the Kaiakoura end. Great day ride up the inland road to kaikoura for lunch and then back down the coast road in the afternoon. Makes for a fantastic day. (or used to )

[Nic in Western NYS]

For those of you from the US.

The vid here is of the recent welcome in Auckland of a US navel vessel. The first, I think, since we decided to go nuclear free!  Nice to see that freeze-out thawing. It seems the US Navy guys enjoyed it.  This is one of the ships that are now busy down at Kaikoura. 

http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/video-us-navy-welcomed-with-haka-2016111811

Thanks for the great clip.  Amazing to see the extent of the movement of land.  Just doesn't fit with normal experience. Here's to some boring seismology for you guys for the next 100 years or so.

[johnr]

A few more pics.

Kiakoura. (pre quake)


The supply convoy. Held up by impassable roads.


There are three rivers blocked in this manner. (at least that we know of so far)

[RANDM]

The big one off the Japanese coast wasn't all that long afterwards either.

Just heard that "the tsunami warnings in Japan have just been downgraded" - did they just have an incident? If so it was quicker and further afield than I thought it would be, I thought Papua NG
would get a wake up first.

Maurie.

[Muzz]

Something like a 7.4 off Fukushima. 1.2 mt tsunami or round about, certainly visible traveling up the river. No significant damage,

We are still feeling some of the shakes Kaikoura is still having, over 2000 aftershocks and counting. Don't envy them up there. Seems like some are still flushing their toilets while there is nothing in the way of a sewer system functioning. It is flowing across people's sections further downstream. During Christchurch's earthquakes I dug a longdrop and surrounded it with tarps; pain at night but it worked just fine.

[johnr]

Yes. Aftershock of 5.4 in NZ today centered at Culverden has blocked the back road to Kaikoua again.  That would normally be considered a significant shake in it's own right.

The 7.4 in Japan does seem to support my theory, does it not Maurie? 

[RANDM]

Would seem so John. I thought PNG first mainly because Japan
Had such a big hit last time, but it's all a bit of guesswork -
let's wait and see if it's settled for a while or if PNG and
Indonesia are now pressure points.

Don't envy you guys at times like this. Big, flat, stable Oz
Seems warm and cuddly right now.

Respect.

Maurie.

[johnr]

Well Maurie, as Dusty said, it's the price we pay for a spectacular landscape as it is this that has formed it. 
Having continuing earthquakes is a good thing in so far as it means the pressure is being relieved on a relatively continuous basis  Though I think 7.8 is a bit over the top in this regard but then these have been happening along faults that have been quiet for too long. A few more of them but all kept below 5 is a more comfortable scenario In something less that 5 you would be unlucky to break a window.

I would be more concerned in areas where the plates have jammed and are building up pressure. 

One such is the Cascadian Fault which runs from Cape Mendocine up the west coast of the US and British Columbia to Vancouver.

The Juan De Fuca plate is subducting below the North American plate there but the North american plate is not riding up over it. (which would produce a lot of small earthquakes)  Instead the North American plate is stuck on the eastward traveling Juan De Fuca plate resulting in it bending upward. (the land is rising)

Like the top part of the pic below.


Of course such a state of affairs cannot continue indefinitely and the stuck bit must unstick. That though results in a mighty big earthquake of (unlike the San Andreas fault) a Tsunami producing type.  Alternatively the 'bent' part could actually break with similar results. See bottom part of the diagram.

Based on historic records that event is 79 years over due.

[Muzz]

That 5.4 was evidently a very concentrated shake and caused quite a bit of local damage to buildings. The small settlement of Scargill was right on top of it. Watertanks have come down, the local hall has serious damage and a lot of the houses have suffered damage.

Evidently bubbles are now coming out of the sea bed in Kaikoura. Sea temp has come up. Should be a good tourist attraction. The whales that the Kaikoura Whale Watch rely on have at least stayed around.

[johnr]

That 5.4 was evidently a very concentrated shake and caused quite a bit of local damage to buildings. The small settlement of Scargill was right on top of it. Watertanks have come down, the local hall has serious damage and a lot of the houses have suffered damage.

Evidently bubbles are now coming out of the sea bed in Kaikoura. Sea temp has come up. Should be a good tourist attraction. The whales that the Kaikoura Whale Watch rely on have at least stayed around.

If the Gubint builds its proposed super highway to Christchurch there will be little to no tourism in Kaikoura at all.  What do the bubbles and sea temp signify Muzz?

Ps
It seams the sea bed has risen up to 8 meters in places. No wonder those navy ships could not trust their charts.

[johnr]

Maurie, if I'm understanding things correctly (and that is a big if) Australia is essentially a large bit of sea floor that lifted to the surface.

I'm curious to know why it lifted (and whats holding it up there).

[oldbike54]

If the Gubint builds its proposed super highway to Christchurch there will be little to no tourism in Kaikoura at all.  What do the bubbles and sea temp signify Muzz?

 Not an expert , but it sounds like magma is venting from the ocean floor .

 Dusty

[Muzz]

If the Gubint builds its proposed super highway to Christchurch there will be little to no tourism in Kaikoura at all.  What do the bubbles and sea temp signify Muzz?

Ps
It seams the sea bed has risen up to 8 meters in places. No wonder those navy ships could not trust their charts.

So far the scientists are itching to get in and do some research. To me, the Keneperu fault must just about start at Hanmer, which is geothermal, and stretch through to Kaikoura and beyond. I suspect that things have ruptured enough to do as dusty has suggested.

I think that when things settle down, they will rebuild the coastal road. to important to the tourism industry, and the railway, not to.

[Mr Revhead]

If the Gubint builds its proposed super highway to Christchurch there will be little to no tourism in Kaikoura at all.  What do the bubbles and sea temp signify Muzz?

Ps
It seams the sea bed has risen up to 8 meters in places. No wonder those navy ships could not trust their charts.

That superhighway you mention is not at all a proposed government idea. It's merely advertising by a mapping company, it has many serious shortfalls for a new SH1. Loand ownership, conservations concerns, and the facts it gets more snow than Arthurs pass...

[johnr]

So, Dusty and Muzz, You think we may have cracked open a new volcano?  That could get interesting!

Mr Revhead, I hope that is all that it is, but I have heard Gubint ministers bandying the idea about. Even severe re-alignment could ruin that road.

[RANDM]

Maurie, if I'm understanding things correctly (and that is a big if) Australia is essentially a large bit of sea floor that lifted to the surface.

I'm curious to know why it lifted (and whats holding it up there).

Well if I've pieced together the bits and bobs I've heard and
read properly the Pacific Plate moves Westward and slides
under the Australian Continental Shelf and China/ Japan.
The Hawaii we know now sits over a hot spot creating their
Volcanic action - but to the Westward there are a string of
previous Hawaiis which have sunk beneath the water,
deeper the further to the west you go as the Pac. Plate starts
to go under.
I think we're pretty stable because the edge of our
Continental Shelf is far enough off our Coast that we don't
get much trouble that way, forget how far - learnt it as a kid
- 200 miles rings a bell for some reason.

I think of it this way, as the Pac. Plate moves West and goes
under it's not going to go easy - to many variables in thickness
density lumps and bumps. It's going to catch and crumble
unevenly along that whole side of the Ring of Fire.
When it crumbles it only relieves the stress in that Regeon
but when it does it's the Plate moveing and that creates the next
Pressure Point - the next hot spot.

That's how I make sense of it in my own dyslexic way.
Because Japan got a big bit last time I thought PNG would be
the next hot spot but Oz is heading North as well so there's
the Ringer. Indonesia had some over the last few years so we
might be pushing hard enough to make a difference.

Maurie.

[Mr Revhead]

There has been talk by some ministers about partial realign, which I understand because in place it's pretty dodgy!
I imagine it would simply be cutting out some of the more unstable bits under cliffs.
It's never been a fun road for me. Far too much traffic and to straight. The Lewis is much more fun

[johnr]

It's never been a fun road for me. Far too much traffic and to straight. The Lewis is much more fun

Heading south just after dawn with the sun rising out of the sea. Then there is magic!
The lewis is fun too of course as was Arthur's Pass before they fixed it. Come to that so is the Lindis and the Haast.

[Muzz]

The inland road that the army is using is a blast, especially at the Kaikoura end. Tight and twisty. (At least it was before the earthquake.