* Tap Tap Tap - testing testing - knocks over microphone - muffled inaudible comments..... *
Attention! Attention! Many anipals will know that New Zealand has had a major earthquake over the past few days. I thought it might be good to explain a bit about us, where it struck and how the country is affected.
New Zealand is made up of two large islands - North Island and South Island - the North Island is as big as Great Britain, just to give you a rough idea of size.
The main area of the recent 7.1 quake was Christchurch (shortened to Chch often) - this is on the South Island sort of above the middle - see the map below or the link; see pictures of the damage done here in this article. There are a lot of older historic buildings in Chch (old in NZ terms that is....)
New Zealand is on the edge of what has been nick-named the 'Ring of Fire' a set of volcano and fracture thingies that means we shake a lot, so much so that people often don't notice small ones after a while MOL! Sometimes NZ has big ones like Christchurch - Gisborne had one not so long ago.
Odd thing is Chch doesn't usually have big ones at all. This is why there are a lot of brick buildings, and why some of them fell down. Around my patch most of the houses are wood - this moves a bit more in quakes 'cos it's more flexible. Thankfully most people are safe.
View Larger Map
OMC! We are glad most are safe. Old brick buildings are bad. We live in California, and they have made laws to retrofit or tear down un-reinforced brick structures.
ReplyDeleteLizzy--'mom' to: Tigger, Munchkin, Jigsaw and Patches
Dear Friends, we are so very thankful that all our friends in NZ are okay. Thanks for posting the map - now I understand things better. I guess my state is sitting on a fault too, but we haven't felt any shocks in about 40 years. Must be very scary.
ReplyDeleteI sure am glad to hear that you are alright and I hope the shakey things leave you alone for a long time!
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