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I live in Wellington, New Zealand now and for the past month we have had constant earthquakes (2000 a week) including a 6.7, 6.2, 6.4 several hundred 5+ and yesterday a 6.9, 6.7, 6.5.

I've spent more time in my door way than anywhere else and the city is now at that level where it seems to be constantly moving. So you feel sea sick.

Yesterday during the 6.9 I had to evacuate my building whilst big bits of plaster and tiles from the ceiling were falling around me and it certainly isn't fun working on the 7th and 12th floors where I spend all my time and watching everything go flying around from under your desk.

My power goes out with each big quake and it's just general chaos and disaster movie like stuff.

I'm not going to lie, I'm struggling. Being woken every few minutes during the night with an aftershock is just exhausting.

So, who's all been in earthquakes? Experiences and how did you deal with it?

wow. that's wild.
I've always thought it'd be fun to experience an earthquake but I certainly wouldn't want them to be constant like that.
Also, preferably experience them on vacation somewhere else.

Been in one earthquake myself. Exciting, but I imagine it'd get old after a while, and then there's the damage it causes, unless you build your house out of jell-o. Guess they didn't warn you about this in the travel brochure, eh?

Annabel wrote:

I live in Wellington, New Zealand now .."

FireGryphon wrote:

Guess they didn't warn you about this in the travel brochure, eh?

Live != travel.

I mean the whole of New Zealand is surrounded by the "ring of fire" with fault lines everywhere. I live in Wellington which is built on the Alpine fault line, so I knew to expect them. Plus I'm sure everyone remembers the earthquake a couple of years ago in Christchurch, NZ that flattened the city. So it's not like you can be unaware of them. But it's the strength and the quantity that's the problem. Wellington hasn't had anything like this in most people's living memory, to buildings well.. They aren't built for it and everyone knows that. It's really an insane environment to live and work in at that moment.

I still would not consider leaving until I'm done with this place, and I'm not done yet. A large number of travellers have left though :/

I live in CA, and the earth shifting around here is pretty common.. that being said, those are a massive series of earthquakes.. We had just moved to CA in '89 before the Loma Prieta earthquake (7.2) which collapsed a major freeway and a bridge. anything at 5 or less isn't worth worrying about, but beyond above that it's definitely crazy. Sounds like the buildings will all need to be retrofitted, but that usually makes builds more prone to shifting, to prevent a collapse...

My building at work is only 33% the seismic level it's meant to be. So not ideal, but along with the thousands of other people working there.. I mean what are you meant to do? You can't just not work. The whole city is the same really.

So in Cali, do you have these like insane aftershocks every 5 minutes for weeks on end?

Generally, you'll get a pre-shock for an earthquake, the main event, and then aftershocks, with the biggest aftershocks coming within days of the main one, and continuing but smaller ones for weeks afterwards.. your series of 6.x is much higher.... granted we are all waiting for the big one to hit where California falls into the sea, but I digress

Yeah same. People have been waiting for "the big one" in Wellington for years. These shocks are not following any patterns and yay, scientists have no idea what's going on. It's very unusual to have quite so many quakes and quite so many big quakes then smaller then big again. It's just annoying, I just want to get on with normal life and this is just making it impossible.

Oh and every quake causes chunks of reclaimed land to fall back into the sea, joy.

Sounds about right.. Just treat it like a summer thunderstorm, it'll be over quickly, just wait it out..

And in the meantime, avoid being squished!

Anyone else been in any really big quakes?

I come from a country also located in seismically active zone. There were few earthquakes when I used to live there, mostly minor, but some were pretty noticeable. Was definitely unpleasant, especially on higher floors of multiple-storey buildings. There was no damage to any buildings, though - after the very major earthquake in 1966 all of the new buildings were built out of precast concrete panels with additional reinforcements.

Fun fact: we used to have a cat in our apartment there who liked to spend some time outside. I dunno if it was just a coincidence or not but it was never present inside during all of these earthquakes (regardless of the time of the day), was always somewhere outside on city streets...

As a kid I fondly remember watching the pavement undulate like jelly. I haven't been in any major earthquakes that caused damage and tend to enjoy them when they happen.

Animals are able to sense earthquakes somehow and head for safety well before an earthquake hits..

druidcent wrote:

Animals are able to sense earthquakes somehow and head for safety well before an earthquake hits..

Yea, I know, that's why I mentioned it. This does not occur with other natural disasters, though - during last hurricane (Sandy), when the waves were reaching the side of our house, our cat was just sleeping on kitchen's chair.

Dirge wrote:

As a kid living in Hastings New Zealand I fondly remember watching the pavement undulate like jelly. I haven't been in any major earthquakes that caused damage and tend to enjoy them when they happen. I am now in Hamilton which according to WolframAlpha alpha is 391Km from Wellington. I felt yesterdays big earthquake as only a light rocking. My big concern for you guys and girls in Wellington is that Lambton Quay, the heart of the business district, is mostly built on reclaimed land.

Yay a kiwi I heard it was felt in Hamilton from some friends there. Welly was just madness yesterday, it was complete chaos. Half the glass that only just got replaced is broken again. I'm in one of the ministry buildings and it was just a shambles

5.8 shaking me again this evening. Bleh

http://www.google.org/publicalerts/aler ... ource=paws
Just some aftershocks... They will pass, nothing is really dangerous about them. Make some warm milk, take some Melatonin and go to sleep

Yeah I know. They're still a pain though, keep shaking me out of bed!

Isn't it getting a little too dangerous to live in your area?

Btw, just checked out NZ's location (I haven't been paying a lot of attention to it lately), and I see NZ is one of the most remote countries. It's so near the Antarctic already. Perhaps only the tip of South America is nearer.

Where I live if the earth is rumbling it is nearly always because they are running firing exercises out at the firing range.

Send some Earthquakes to Idaho here in the U.S. Were bored and need a little excitement.

Well I came to NZ from Scotland a while ago and I'm only here temporarily. Yes it's probably dangerous but I refuse to run away :/ having said that a lot of travellers that I know here have left now.

I mean you can't just leave..

I'd love to send them away

JohnC wrote:

druidcent wrote:

Animals are able to sense earthquakes somehow and head for safety well before an earthquake hits..

Yea, I know, that's why I mentioned it. This does not occur with other natural disasters, though - during last hurricane (Sandy), when the waves were reaching the side of our house, our cat was just sleeping on kitchen's chair.

I think it's because the earth's movement cause either a subsonic or ultrasonic noise (I remember reading that, but I can't remember where).. Most animals can pick up on in, and know that it's bad.. but it's outside of our hearing range.

I was in Christchurch traveling when the aftershocks from the first big quake hit it a couple of years ago, not the one that made the most damage, but IIRC, the first one was actually bigger, but not as close or in such a bad spot as the second one.

While only being an aftershook, it was both kindof awesome, and also pretty daunting considering I come from a country where there is seldom any quakes you can feel at all. Once they hit the first time you feel kindof small when you realise there is really nothing you can do about it. I was sleeping in a bed on Wheels in that hostel and waking up feeling yourself floating around while the house shook was among the weirdest things I've felt.

I really hope it settles down soon, NZ really deserve some rest from the last ones.

Definitely in agreement that they should settle down soon. I'm suffering from ghost quakes now, as I think a lot of people are. It's not been as bad this time as it was during the July quakes, when it was just two weeks of constant shakes and I honestly started feeling sea sick.

I'm just not used to, Scotland has nothing like this and as much as I always wanted to be Bruce Willis in Die Hard, this is just a bit too real. Back in work today and the lifts aren't working, so a nice hike to the 12th floor this morning up the stairs and it's just cracks and plaster everywhere... ugh.. if there's going to be another massive one, just please not when I'm in this building again!

A few of my colleagues at work were in the Christchurch quake, and like you said, the bigger ones came first and then the more damage came from the second set of quakes which hit right under the CBD. I mean if that happens in Wellington.. the whole city would be pancaked. So fingers crossed that doesn't happen!

I'm really pretty alright and fine about them, but some people in my office are just totally freaked out and just a mess, it's not nice seeing that.

Latest update: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10914143

TL;DR :
Quakes moving further South. Strike-Slip quakes

Cook Strait quake forecasts
*Magnitude 6+: This week: 21%. This year: 51%
*Magnitude 5.0-5.9: This week: 90%. This year: 99.9%
*Magnitude 4.0-4.9: This week: 99.9%. This year: 99.9%

Earthquakes are very common in NZ, I never really used to bat an eyelid when we would have quakes up to around a 5. People have only really started taking notice since Christchurch took a decent whack, since then I always start to think about whether I should be finding something solid to get near when I feel a decent sized shake. Historically we get a big one every 10-20 years, although they probably happen a lot more it's just we only tend to notice the ones that are centered close to big cities.
http://info.geonet.org.nz/display/quake ... Statistics
http://info.geonet.org.nz/display/quake ... arthquakes

e.g. in the last 50 years there were 22 7.0-7.9 earthquakes


Wellington is probably one of the worst spots to be because of how built up it is, judging from how that last 6.2 felt from here in Palmerston North I would guess it was none too pleasant being in Wellington. People in Christchurch and Seddon probably needed a change of underwear I would guess.

Wibble wobble wibble wobble.

Hey there's loads of kiwi's on here, why isn't there a Kiwi TR BBQ ;D