Rare Earth - Earthquakes around the Planet

Earthquakes have been in the news quite a lot this year! Haiti, Chile, and most recently, Christchurch, New Zealand.

But what is the 'Earthquake Experience' really like? Our friend, Pat Boland, lives in Christchurch. She and husband Bob felt the first shakes on September 4 and are living through the continuing shakes that are occurring. Here is Pat's report....

Hi Susan and Blair, or should I say Good evening?
As it is evening two days after the earthquake which has rocked the sox off us in ChCh even if we are lucky enough for it to be figuratively and not actually.

Bob and I and our immediate family have been lucky enough to be in the first category though many hundreds of our fair city have not been so fortunate and we are still experiencing aftershocks. There was one as I am typing 2 1/2 days after the initial shock at 4.35 AM last Saturday.

How fortunate that it happened then. If it had been during the day loss of life would have to have been a factor.

We ourselves experienced a shock of about 30 seconds but it was not too traumatic as nothing collapsed and furniture did not move, etc. but others have very scary tales to tell. There were many subsequent shocks in the next hour and they have continued since. The devastation has taken place in pockets throughout the city with seemingly no obvious reason for it to happen in that particular place. Things like water table, foundations on sand/peat, quality of workmanship, and age of buildings must be factors.

You talk to people and they say "no we are OK" and you begin to think it cannot be too bad but for those whose houses are destroyed or are going to have to be bull dosed (and there are hundreds of them) life will not be the same. And the memory of those few moments for them will be a challenge.

For me it seemed surreal to be sitting in the sun porch on a clear windless sunny day with a stunning view of the Southern Alps and the Estuary with a full tide (which remained most of the day) with everything as normal and knowing that a few km away peoples lives and aspirations had changed perhaps for ever.

Enough of this we are all battling on. The City is closed for a couple of days so Bob can not go to work. As I work in the suburbs it is work as usual.

Pat Boland
Christchurch, NZ
September 6, 2010