Shake Rattle and Roll N.Z. earthquakes

[RANDM]

Mabe a little further afield as well John.
If I remember it rightly Papua had some action on their
northern shoreline shortly after your last big one?

Maurie.

[injundave]

We live in Havelock North 300-400km north of Kaikoura. When the first 7.5 quake struck at 12.02am we were woken by our dog and daughter both arriving at the same time, daughter loudly proclaiming that it was an earthquake. Our waterbed (Yes, I know, ageing hippies) was really rocking and all sorts of stuff in the house was banging and rattling. This seemed to go on for ages although probably only 30 seconds or so.

When it finally stopped I switched on the bedside radio and listened to the first reports coming in and we realised that it was a big one somewhere to have given us such a shake.

My theory is that, in a big quake, all you can do is hold on tight and hope Old Mother Nature isn't hunting you specifically. My best to those of you further south who may find yourselves affected in some way, either serious or, hopefully, not.

Dave

[oldbike54]

:-)
I know allot of people that will be happy about that with the rising sea levels and all!

 Yep , at least on the West coast  Of course if we keep getting temblors in Oklahoma , there is the possibility of some nice sea side real estate developing here 

 Dusty

[Arizona Wayne]

Lot of earth movement and those trapped cattle remind me of the sinkholes they get in Florida. 

[johnr]

Mabe a little further afield as well John.
If I remember it rightly Papua had some action on their
northern shoreline shortly after your last big one?

Maurie.

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

[steamdriven NZ]

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/

I had a look for last 30 days at +2.5
Fills a lot of the screen!

[johnr]

The Air Force is busily choppering tourists out of Kaikora now starting with those with kids and the elderly. Private choppers are being used too by those that can afford them and the various "damage control" people.

The local marae has opened it's doors and are supplying food and (mattress on the floor) lodging to people. They are eating crayfish. Crayfish!! Those lucky people! I couldn't afford crayfish in a million years. !.5 tonnes of if was donated! It would be worth being there just for that!

The smaller of two Navy ships (a patrol vessel) arrives tomorrow. It will have to scout out the place to see if the larger one (the supply ship) that is hot on it's heels can actually dock there. It's only a fishing port.

Road engineers are pushing through clearances on a back road into the place. That may be open in a matter of days.

Things are moving along.

[Muzz]

Wellington also got hit and yesterday things compounded with torrential rain and high winds. Monday people were told to stay at home as no buses and trains were running and a lot had to stay at home yesterday as the roads in and out were impassable. A couple of buildings, at least one was only 8 years old, have been knocked out of action and a fairly major street near one of them is now out of bounds. The 8 story one has the external elevator tower parting company with the building itself with the distinct possibility of collapse.

Kaikoura is still cut off. However, there is a fairly major (for us ) naval exercise about to start and it sounds as though there is going to be an international naval response. A sonar ship is doing a survey now to see how close they can get in, and the slipway to launch small boats is open for business now. The kiwis I know carry de-salination plants which could literally be a life saver. Drinking water supplies are low, as are food stocks etc. With the fibre optic line taken out and the cellphone towers down communication is still at best marginal. We can now at least get to the top of the South Island a bit easier now as they have got a one lane link through the Lewis Pass route open.

Still a lot of tourists trapped there. Sounds as though the first NZ ship to arrive, the Wellington, is going to take a whole heap of them to Christchurch, re-supply, and then head back to Kaikoura. The campervans that a lot of the tourists were in will just have to stay in Kaikoura for a fair while.

edit. Just had a quick look at Geonet. The aftershocks are still coming 1-5 minutes apart but the the intensity of them is falling away. They tend to be in the range of 2.4 - 3.7  with only a couple of 4.8's in there in the last hour.

[Kev m]

A few pics.

There is something both whimsical and analogous  about these cows. They are, like the nearby people of Kaikoura and about 1800 tourists with them, stranded without food water or sanitary arrangements.

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'll sleep better tonight knowing those cows have been rescued:

Moooving on: Cows Stranded by New Zealand Quake Are Rescued

http://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/mooove-cows-stranded-zealand-earthquake-43517054

[oldbike54]

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'll sleep better tonight knowing those cows have been rescued:

http://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/mooove-cows-stranded-zealand-earthquake-43517054

 Ya got a problem with cows ? Funny attitude for a guy what lives in a state named after cows 

 Dusty

[johnr]

Still a lot of tourists trapped there. Sounds as though the first NZ ship to arrive, the Wellington, is going to take a whole heap of them to Christchurch, re-supply, and then head back to Kaikoura. The campervans that a lot of the tourists were in will just have to stay in Kaikoura for a fair while.

I suspect that a whole heap of Portaloos will be high on the NZS Wellingtons priority list.

[oldbike54]

 I will never ever complain about our little baby temblors again . Saw some news footage today , seems you Kiwis are behaving in your normal understated way , the damage is bad . Our hearts and minds are with our Kiwi mates .

 Dusty

[Kev m]

Ya got a problem with cows ? Funny attitude for a guy what lives in a state named after cows 

 Dusty

Huh?

I think cows are freakin' delicious... especially as blackened filets....

[KiwiKev]

Hi Guys,

We are house sitting for friends in Waikanae which is just nort of Wellington

So far we have had earthquakes, strong winds, torrential rain, flooding and last night thunder that shook the house.

Looking forward to hail and snow next [emoji51]

No damage here but the shake on Monday got your attention for sure. Worst
By far I've felt in my almost 70 years on the planet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[voncrump]

This is a photo of the 4 metre verticle Faultine fracture on State highway one. There has been some serious force at work here. The main Shake has been rescaled up to 7.8.




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Its a major mess along the whole coast.
Cheers, Voncrump

[gsp0702]

Kiwikev, looks like tornado should have been added to your list of natural phenomena : http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/nz-earthquake/86549288/mini-tornado-causes-damage-in-kapiti

I like this one as it shows the lateral displacement along the fault of what looks to be around 10metres (http://www.meteoweb.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/terremoto-nuova-zelanda-case-faglia-2-747x420.jpg)

With the revision of the original quake magnitude up to 7.8, then as Geonet have indicated the probability of an after shock in the region of upto magnitude 7 is significant. So restocking your emergency supplies would be sensible at this point, checking your bug out bag etc and be prepared. (http://info.geonet.org.nz/display/quake/2016/11/14/M7.5+Kaikoura+Quake%3A+What+we+know+so+far)

[voncrump]

This map of the Fault lines may give an idea of what is going on.





The picture of the road that has shifted by 4 metres vertically was taken on the Waipapa fault.





The second picture is an aerial view. You can see the Fault trace going across and into the sea. The seabed on the lower side of the photo has risen.

Cheers, voncrump

[johnr]

I see that the remainder of the people who wanted to get out of Kaikoura have now achieved that by ship. My understanding is that the ship was unable to dock but that they were ferried out to it by RIBs

In addition to our own there are warships present from Canada, Oz, and the US that were here to help with the NZ Navy's 75th anniversary. These have been diverted to help out but with the inability to dock this may be limited to the supply and use of helicopters. That's fine though. There will still be plenty of work for them to do.

The Army has managed to get a vehicle through via the back road to Kiakoura but the road is not safe enough for public (or any other) use as yet.

As I predicted, Chemical toilets will be arriving in numbers aboard the HMNZS Canterbury this morning. Amazing how important such mundane things can be. Presumably they will come with supplies of toilet paper.

There is a tendency I think quite reasonably, to focus on towns in an event like this and forget the isolated pockets of people in the back blocks.  This sort of thing is happening in the background. 
"People near the Hapuku River had been told to steer clear of it after a lake was formed behind a 150m-high dam was formed by a landslide caused by the quake and there were fears it could fail." If it doesn't I guess we have a new lake.

[KiwiKev]

No we didn't notice the tornado tho we are close to Te Moana road. All we healed was a single clap of thunder, and man it was loud. Our dogs just about died as did my wife.

Sounded like a ton of boulders dropped on our roof.

Come to think of it now I guess it could have been :-). Or debris of some kind but I just looked and can't see anything from the ground. Two story place so hard to tell from below.

[KiwiKev]

Oh yeh, the friends we're house sitting for are in the U.K. Visiting family. They heard over there that the North and South islands are now two metres further apart :-)

Mm let me think now .....

[Kiwi Dave]

Oh yeh, the friends we're house sitting for are in the U.K. Visiting family. They heard over there that the North and South islands are now two metres further apart :-)

Mm let me think now .....

That'll be a good reason to increase the fares on the inter island ferry.   

[Mr Revhead]

Actually it went the other way, 2m closer. Don't you northerners be getting any ideas about jumping across!

On the subject of costs, all freight companies have increased their bills by 15-20% due to the extra distance they have to go between Picton and Chch now.
There are other issues, the road near St Arnaud on the now shortest route to chch is already breaking up under the extra load. There is also talk of extensive speed restrictions on a lot of that route due to the roads not being suitable for the increased number or heavier trucks.
That road is not a 50max road so it's bridges etc are not up to the standard needed. Drames upon dramas 

[johnr]

Things are moving past initial response and into recovery now, at least in Kiakoura itself.

We have supplies rolling in by ship, air and courtesy of the NZ Army, by road. Normal traffic can not use that back road yet.

The air part is catered for by the helicopters of 4 Navies.
That of the US, Canada, Australia and NZ that happened to be in the country at the time. The NZ Navy ships are tasked with ferrying in supplies (presumably because they are the one with a supply ship) While the others have supplied hundreds of men who are doing road repairs and other such tasks that require manpower. They all seem remarkably happy with their lot. Perhaps they needed some purposeful time ashore.

There is something of an ecological disaster along the shoreline. It seems that the seabed rose about 8 feet and many critters that need to be underwater full time find that they are not.  There is talk of closing the fishery there to allow things to recover. This seems an over reaction to me as the commercial species fished in shore are not restricted to the tidal zone and should be fine.  Businesses will fail if they close it.

One sadness was a seal colony that was destroyed.  The pups would entertain tourists by heading up a creek to play in the pool of a waterfall while the parents were out fishing.  http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/86512830/famous-seal-breeding-ground-destroyed-by-quake

Numbers are being bandied about now. The energy released from the initial quake, which has been regraded to a 7.8, is equivalent to 400 atomic bombs, of what size they do not say.

There number of slips created by it has been quoted as 100000. Though I don't see how they have had time to find and count that many.

The number of quakes since the first one on Monday has passed the 3000 mark.

The chances of having a quake up to magnitude 6.9 in the next 3 weeks is over 90%
The chances of having a quake of magnitude 7 or higher in the next 3 weeks is 24%
It should be remembered that each magnitude number is 10 times the power of the next one down.

In Wellington there is an ever increasing number of buildings often relatively new ones, being evacuated as serious damage is discovered. The streets get closed off as this happens to ensure that they don't fall on anyone, so there is increasing disruption there.

It was interesting to watch the interviews with tourists as they got safely delivered to Christchurch. Most seemed really grateful for the way they had been looked after and many were chuffed to bits about the free 'cruise' on a navy ship. The Navy had  meals and other food for them and had set up a temporary movie theatre for them to use. The over riding thing that seemed to be on all their minds were hot showers.
Surprising to me is the fact that the Army didn't fly in one of their mobile shower units They work off a converted steam cleaner and can shower 8 people at a time. Maybe there just wasn't the water available.  (I've enjoyed one of those a time or two!)

There was one tourist who was grizzly about how long it took to get him out. sigh....

[johnr]

http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/hapuku-river-locals-fear-dam-may-burst-2016111819

Looks pretty stable to me but what would i know.
Maps are going to have to re done.

[KiwiKev]

There was one tourist who was grizzly about how long it took to get him out. sigh....

Thanks for the update Johnr,
That poor tourist should pull his head in  and get a life, he's lucky to have one. I didn't see him on tv but it surprises me anyone would be so b ungrateful.

Re the seals I guess they will find somewhere else to go, as long as not too many were killed in the event.

I reckon things will settle down given time and a common sense approach. As someone has said the road and rail link was made with pick and shovels back when so a few modern appliances should be able to chew through the slips ?

What happens to the rail link if they abandon the coastal road I wonder ?

[Muzz]

I reckon things will settle down given time and a common sense approach. As someone has said the road and rail link was made with pick and shovels back when so a few modern appliances should be able to chew through the slips ?

What happens to the rail link if they abandon the coastal road I wonder ?

Nothing decided on that one Kev. Already the increased costs and transport times are having a pretty major effect as Rev has said. T'aint quite as easy as it sounds. I suspect at this stage they don't want to just bulldoze the rubble in to the sea, and at this stage ,especially for up there it would be illegal I suspect. The paua and crayfish beds are lterally right by the road. The cliffs on the inland side of the coast are quite steep where the slips have come down. They would have to stabilise them as well, and then truck the rubble and dump it somewhere, lord knows where. The rail runs alongside the road, so the same thing applies.

A lot of freight comes down from Auckland by rail and crosses on the Cook Strait ferries (which are running now but repairs to their docks need to be made), and then heads down on the Kaikoura rail link to as far as johnr's home of Invercargill. I suspect that link is pretty vital. Surprising the flow on effects, the panel beater that my son does a lot of work for suddenly has a two week delay getting parts form Auckland where a lot of firms have their warehouses. He now has a yard full of damaged cars hanging about waiting for bits and he has run out of room to put them.

The inland route that the army are using also has significant damage, and some major bridges are damaged or out. They are fording some of the rivers, and suffering delays when it rains.

I am glad it is not me making the decisions on what to do, and there is no quick and easy fix. The coastal road is not only the quickest (and shortest) way south, it is also a major tourist road and Kaikoura runs on tourism. The South Island has really just one big ringroad running around the coast, and there are only a couple of links coneecting the West Coast to the estern side. Whatever is decided, the cost is going to be horrendous.

[KiwiKev]

Nothing decided on that one Kev. Already the increased costs and transport times are having a pretty..

Ok let's just abandon the South Island then, cut the cable and let them fend for themselves ;-p

[johnr]

Muzz the PM (Prime Minister) has mentioned the probable need to re-align (read "Ruin") that coast road a number of times already. If it's done you can bet it will lose a lot of it's value as a tourist route. It will be the cheapest fix that will be implemented though.

Of course when the Govt maneuvered the NZ Shipping Company out of existence we lost our coastal shipping service as well as the companies main stay, the excellent road rail ferries between Christchurch and Wellington.  Alternatives that are badly missed now.

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.

You are probably right about not dumping debris along the foreshore. That would be a disaster in it's own right. However there have been a number of new valleys created by this earthquake, some of them surprisingly large (what an adventure for a tree, to find itself dropped a few hundred feet into a new valley!) These could take the rubble, if anyone thinks of it.

[johnr]

This is not so good.

"An MP who has visited Kaikoura says police should tell "malingering non-locals" to continue their travels.

NZ First's Ron Mark says they're accepting free food and hand-outs so they can spend their nights partying and drinking in the quake-stricken town.

"We were advised there is some frustration with non-locals and non-emergency helpers who have decided to stay in the town and are accepting the tremendous generosity of locals," he said.

"Kiwis are known as being generous and hospitable, but this only goes so far.

"These people who are prolonging their stay and receiving free food and hand-outs should be advised to move on."

Mr Mark wants the government to issue instructions to the police.

He didn't say whether the people he was talking about were foreign tourists.

Civil Defence has confirmed that while all the tourists in Kaikoura who wanted to be moved out have been evacuated, some decided they wanted to stay on."

[johnr]

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