A moderately sharp earthquake the other night had us waiting to see if it would be followed by another. Although the quake was centered not too far away in Paraparaumu, we were lucky that nothing further happened. And then what do we see on the news? The prediction that Wellington would be split into seven “islands” if a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck on the Wellington fault line. The seven "islands" would not be separated by water, but would be cut off from each other by crumbled infrastructure. In some cases, main roads could be out of action for four months. The fear is that a rupture of magnitude 7.5 or greater along the Wellington Fault will damage road and water links in the capital so badly that its northern and western suburbs are cut off from its central, eastern and southern suburbs.
And there has been startling news announced about the devastating Kaikoura earthquake which did so much damage on 14th November 2016. The Kaikoura earthquake shunted parts of the South Island more than 5 metres closer to the North Island, in a rupture so unusual it could forever change the way scientists think about earthquake hazards. The report confirmed that at least 21 faults, some of them previously unknown, had ruptured across two active fault domains that were not known to be connected.
Scary stuff indeed. We had better make sure we have plenty of supplies ready.
4 comments:
Scarey info.
Need a few more shakes like the Kaikoura one. then we could do away with that ferry service!!!!
Not another one! Here's hoping it all settles down and none of the dire predictions come to fruition.
Scary indeed, be safe!!
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