Tonga 6.1 Quake

Quake Map from earthquake.usgs.gov Click to enlarge

More sizable earthquakes have struck today along the Pacific Ring of Fire, hours after the 7.1 earthquake hit Christchurch and the Canterbury region of New Zealand.

The small Pacific Island of Tonga was rocked by a magnitude 6.1 quake at 8.52pm New Zealand time. (see earthquake.usgs.gov) at a depth of 37.1 kms, approximate 150km south of the city of Hihifo.

As yet we’ve not heard of any reports of damage or tsunami warnings.

The U.S. Geological Survey also reported that an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale has shaken Indonesia. The epicenter was at a depth of 40 km, about 245 km west of Jayapura on the Indonesian island of Papua.

Christchurch Curfew Announced, Aftershocks – Update

A curfew will be in place in central Christchurch and Kaiapoi from 7pm today until 7am tomorrow to control looting and civil unrest, the central area will also be cordoned off.

Power is slowly being restored to the city, sparking off a number of fires in buildings damaged in the 7.1 quake.

The two major concerns facing emergency teams and residents are damage to underground services (water supplies and sewerage infrastructure) which may take weeks to repair and hazardous buildings weakened by the quake which have yet to be assessed or made safe.

Around 20 aftershocks have been felt since the initial quake. Residents are advised to boil all drinking water for 3 minutes.

Casualties in the disaster have been mercifully light, due mostly to the timing of the quake that occurred whilst most people were still asleep.

A reporter on Sky News said that people were unprepared for the quake and had no emergency plans in place or disaster provisions, many supermarkets have been subject to panic buying with two hour long queues at one store.

Earlier damage estimates have been revised and are now estimated to amount to 2 billion NZ dollars. Some buildings have been reported to have sunk into the ground by about a metre, probably due to liquefaction of the ground and sand volcanoes have appeared in some places.

Liquefaction maps for Christchurch may be found HERE dated October 2004.The city’s Civil Defence Emergency Management Arrangements may also be found on that link.

Christchurch is zoned into three areas for liquefaction – high in red, moderate in yellow and low in green. Much of the central and eastern part of the city is coloured red.

Aftershocks

Aftershocks have been going on most of the day, most recently (source):

* 7:03 pm  Magnitude: 4.6,  Depth: 20 km,  10 km west of Christchurch

* 6:54 pm  Magnitude: 4.3, Depth: 12 km,  10 km south-west of Christchurch

* 6:38 pm Magnitude: 3.8,   Depth: 12 km,  20 km south-east of Darfield

* 6:35 pm  Magnitude: 3.8,  Depth: 5 km,  20 km south-east of Darfield

*  5:07 pm Magnitude: 3.7,  Depth: 10 km, 20 km west of Christchurch

*4:55 pm Magnitude: 5.4,  Depth: 10 km, 10 km south-west of Darfield

* 4:48 pm  Magnitude: 4.3,  Depth: 15 km, 20 km south-west of Christchurch

Update:

Extra police have been drafted in to provide protection in Christchurch as night falls, according to Stuff.co.nz more than 80 officers have been brought into the city and the mayor has asked the army to also provide assistance, more here.

One British resident in Christchurch has just written this on an expats site:

Was woken up at 4.35 due to the violence of the quake, and have to say its the most frightened I’ve ever been in my life. The house was rocking incredibly, so much so that I’m still amazed its still standing, yet I had little damage apart from smashed crockery and ornaments and the living room looking like we’d been burgled.

The rest of the city hasnt been so lucky, with considerable damage elsewhere. The chinese take away across from me has lost a wall, as has a restaurant further down the road.
Some of the roads in the area have been badly damaged, and wont be passable for days or weeks, and from what I understand the river rose over its banks in some areas to.

The CBD is no-go area, with a curfew and state of emergency in force, and just to kick us when we’re down its forecast 130kmh winds and torrential rain, which I’d imagine could compromise some of the precarious buildings around the city.

We’re getting constant tremors, and have just had one while I’ve been typing, and the experts seem to think one of them is likely to hit a magnitude of 6 before we’re done.
On a slightly more light hearted note I think I need to brush up my emergency management skills. In my (wine hangover affected) early morning panic I remembered the need to get out of the house and to take something to keep warm and some food, only to come to my senses sat in my car with a pillow case and a jar of gherkins.

Other posts about the quake
Christchurch New Zealand Quake Gets its own Wikipedia Page

Photos of the Christchurch Earthquake

New Zealand in Shock After Massive Quake – reports from the public about how the quake affected them

Massive Earthquake in Christchurch, State of Civil Emergency Declared

Christchurch New Zealand Quake Gets Its Own Wikipedia Page

Christchurch, Canterbury Earthquake, 4 Sept 2010

A page dedicated to today’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Christchurch has been set-up on Wikipedia.com. It is called 2010 Canterbury Earthquake:

Most of the damage was concentrated on the area surrounding the epicentre and the nearby city of Christchurch, though there was report of minor damage from as far away as Dunedin, 350 kilometres to the south.

Effects in Christchurch

Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest urban area with a population of 386,000, was the largest urban area close to the earthquake, at 30 km from the epicentre at Darfield.

Sewerage systems were extensively damaged, with spills of sewage in some streets. Additionally, gas and water lines were broken, and power to some sections of the city was disrupted^.

Christchurch Hospital experienced a power cut, requiring the use of emergency generators. Patients were asked to attend their general practitioner for minor injuries.

Rail networks across the South Island, with the exception of Dunedin, were closed for inspection.^[17] Some of the rail lines in Christchurch were badly damaged.

Christchurch International Airport was closed following the earthquake and flights in and out of it cancelled. It reopened at 1:30 pm following inspection of the main runway.

An evacuation of New Brighton in Christchurch and areas of the Christchurch CBD are being considered by Police and Civil Defence.

The site, still in its infancy, gives details of the effects of the quake:

Effects outside Christchurch

The quake’s epicentre was around Darfield, around 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Christchurch.

In many towns outside Christchurch there has been significant liquefacation and selective loss of water supplies. The state of sewage systems outside of Christchurch has yet to be determined.

The quake caused damage to historic buildings in Lyttelton, near Christchurch, including cracks in a church and the destruction of parts of a hotel. Business in the town was closed the day after the quake.

Cost of damages has been estimated going up as far as $2 billion (NZD)

Relief efforts

At about 11:45 a.m., a Royal New Zealand Air Force Hercules C-130 transport plane with 20 search and rescue personnel onboard departed Whenupai air base bound for Christchurch to assist in search and rescue operations.^[21] There are a large number of police and engineers present in the disaster areas. The New Zealand Army is on standby in the region if assisstance is necessary.^[22]

Media coverage

TV One interrupted their daily schedule to bring special all day One News coverage of the earthquake.^[23] Radio New Zealand National interrupted their Saturday morning programming to bring a special edition of their morning news programme Morning Report, which normally only airs on weekdays. This was followed up with a Midday Report half-hour special. The earthquake made headlines in the Sydney Morning Herald, BBC, the Guardian, CNN, FOX News and MSNBC.^[26]

Fox Glacier Plane Crash, Nine Dead Including Four Tourists – Updated

South Island, still reeling from devastation caused by this morning’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake, has been slammed with another disaster this afternoon.

Nine people lost their lives and one was injured in a plane crash at Fox Glacier airport.

Reports are that the plane burst into flames shortly after takeoff. It’s thought that the plane was connected to adventure tourism company Skydive New Zealand

There is only one sky diving company based at Fox Glacier, Skydive New Zealand.

A message on the company’s answerphone this afternoon said, “unfortunately, we will not be skydiving for the rest of the day.” source

At later report in the NZHerald said that a loud bang was heard shortly after takeoff and that four tourists were understood to be among the dead – they were from Ireland, England, Germany and Australia..

Update

The names of the deceased were released later.

The pilot was Chaminda Senadhira (33) from Queenstown.

The four jump instructors were Adam Bennett (47) from Motueka; Michael Suter (32) from New Plymouth; Christopher McDonald (62) from Mapua and Rodney Miller (55) from Greymouth.

All the four tourists were also killed. They were Patrick Byrne (26) from County Wexford, Ireland; Glenn Bourke (18) from Coburg, Victoria, Australia; Annita Kirsten (23) from Germany and Brad Coker (24) from Farnborough, England.

Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the deceased and injured.

From TV NZ two days later:

“New regulations set to be introduced by next October will ensure more stringent safety and maintenance checks are carried out by commercial adventure aviation operators. “

A recent wide ranging review of the adventure tourism sector in New Zealand found a number of gaps in safety, with specific reference to commerical adventure aviation operators the following recommendation was noted by cabinet:

General – Note that Cabinet has approved the development of aviation rules for commercial adventure aviation and new maritime rules for commercial jet boating and rafting to improve the safety regulatory framework for these activities, and that this work is well advanced.

See also:

Safety Gaps Found in Adventure Tourism Review

Adventure Tourism and Safety in NZ – Facts and Stats

Photos Of The Christchurch Earthquake – Updated

Links to some sites with photographs of the Christchurch quake:

• Twicsy.com searches  for eqnz, Christchurch

• Flickr – The Christchurch Earthquake

• Crashbang.co.nz Christchurch Earthquake photos updated Sunday 5 Sept 2010

• MrsGooding’s Photostream

• Canterbury earthquake, day 2

• A Facebook group “I survived the Christchurch earthquake” has been set up and it is showing a number of photographs of the quake:

More photos can be found on Stuff.co.nz