Archive
New Zealand Earthquakes 2013: Temblors Damage Homes And Destroy Bridge
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Strong earthquakes shook central New Zealand on Friday, damaging homes and roads and sending office workers scrambling for cover in the capital. No serious injuries were reported.
A magnitude-6.5 temblor struck just after 2:30 p.m. near the small South Island town of Seddon, and at least six aftershocks were 5.0 magnitude or stronger.
Several homes near the epicenter were severely damaged, with chimneys collapsing and roofs caving in, said police spokeswoman Barbara Dunn. She said a bridge was severely damaged on the main highway near Seddon, and that rocks and debris had fallen onto the road. Police closed a section of the highway.
Some buildings in Wellington, the capital, were evacuated, and items were knocked off shelves in places.
Police said a number of people were freed from Wellington elevators that stopped working. The initial temblor also forced the nation’s stock exchange to close for more than an hour.
Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown said there was Read more…
New Zealand: 36 pilot whales die after stranding (Video)
A group of more than 90 pilot whales were beached on a spit on New Zealand’s South Island on Monday. Thirty-six of the whales had died by Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.
A final attempt to refloat the whales will be made during high tide today.
According to the Australian Associated Press, the pod has repeatedly been stranded on the spit, in Golden Bay on New Zealand’s South Island.
“We tried to refloat the other 40 and they simply wouldn’t move. We tried pushing them out to sea, and they just wouldn’t go,” said the Department of Conservation’s area manager John Mason to the New Zealand Herald.
Close to 50 volunteers are helping the rescue efforts with people traveling from as far as Australia, Auckland and Invercargill to participate. The volunteers were working three to a whale and were Read more…
3 New Zealand Super Volcanoes Are Rumbling!
More Snow On The Way For New Zealand
A new blast of cold weather gripped New Zealand over the weekend as the coldest winter in many years continued to affect large swathes of the country. Snow is currently falling in the South Island and in southern parts of the North Island too, with the northern city of Auckland seeing its first snow since 1939. Sunday saw Wellington’s greatest snowfall for 30 years.
July 22 – 25th was previously the coldest snap since 1995, with snowfall causing disruption across the South Island and some parts of the North Island. Today’s snowfall been more widespread, however, and snow was reported down to sea level in the city of Wellington and other parts of the North Island. The New Zealand Met Serviceis predicting falls of 20 – 35 cm above 300 m in the Wellington area, with lesser falls continuing at lower levels.
A Severe Weather Warning issued Sunday evening stated “An extremely cold Read more…
New Zealand’s Record Snow Storm 25 July 2011
Sunday and Monday the worst winter storm in seventy years hit New Zealand, beginning in the south and moving north. New Zealand is near Antarctica (and the south pole), and during the winter months, Antarctic storms will move north. (It still seems strange to call them “Antarctic storms”, since I’ve always lived with Arctic storms.)
Some places, such as Auckland, haven’t had snow since June 1976. (Remember that winter is during June, July and August here in New Zealand.) People were stranded at airports and ski resorts, especially in the South Island, which was hardest hit.
We received no snow here where we live in Whakatete Bay, just north of Thames, but across the Firth of Thames, the Hunua Ranges (mountains) received a dusting.
Monday is supposed to have been the coldest day of 2011. Here at home, it was the Read more…
Big-Time 7.8 Earthquake Strikes Off New Zealand
The earthquake is a 7.8, and it’s that big red dot in the Pacific, near New Zealand.
There are tsunami fears. Warnings are in effect for Tonga and the Kermadec Islands, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
The New Zealand dollar is falling a bit on the news. You can see the big dropoff on the Kiwi on this chart.
More details here from the USGS.
Quake felt across central New Zealand
LATEST: A deep earthquake measuring 6.5 has been widely felt across the lower North Island, but there were no initial reports of damage.
GNS Science said the earthquake was a magnitude 6.5, centred 150km deep, 30km west of Taupo. It struck at 3.36pm.
Initial reports on GNS’ website show the quake was felt in Wellington, Nelson, New Plymouth and up to the Coromandel.
GNS volcanologist Brad Scott said although the earthquake was centred near Taupo it was more likely felt on Read more…
Properties in Christchurch suburbs evacuated after cracks appeared in cliffs
New Zealand police are evacuating 60 properties in exclusive Christchurch suburbs after cracks appeared in cliffs above the houses.
Residents in Kinsey Terrace, Tuawera Terrace and at the bottom of Clifton Terrace were asked to head towards the Sumner Beach Surf club, police said.
Police were going to each affected house, and a geologist was assessing cracks in a nearby cliff that was causing concern.
It was not known how long the residents would be out of their homes, police said.
The evacuation comes as Civil Defence closed the main road into the east Christchurch suburb of Sumner to assess the stability of the rock face between Cave Terrace and Nayland Street.
To get to Sumner, people should use Evans Pass via Mount Pleasant Road and Summit Road, Civil Defence said.
Christchurch torn by entirely new fault
A new threat of landslides has emerged near to the epicentre of the quake, where boulders loosened by the tremor have already killed two and crushed homes. An aerial survey by scientists found no surface trace of the fault, which is centred southeast of Christchurch. But the expedition found worrying evidence of slips on the crest of the Port Hills, and above Lyttelton, Rapaki and Sumner. Geologists would place monitoring stakes in the hills to measure whether the landslides were creeping towards populated areas.
Early investigations have suggested that the shallow earthquake was an aftershock of the September quake in Darfield, but did not come from the same faultline. GNS Science natural hazards platform manager Kelvin Barryman said tests indicated it occurred on a “blind” or unknown Read more…
Nearly 400 dead, missing in New Zealand quake
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – New Zealand declared a national state of emergency Wednesday after one of its worst earthquake disasters left nearly 400 people dead or missing.
Rescuers worked frantically to reach survivors under collapsed buildings in the stricken city centre of Christchurch, after recovering 75 bodies. About 300 people are still missing after Tuesday’s 6.3-magnitude quake.
“New Zealanders have woken to a tragedy unfolding in the great city of Christchurch,” said Prime Minister John Key, declaring the national emergency.
“The earthquake that struck the Canterbury region at ten to one yesterday has wreaked death and destruction on a dreadful scale.”
New Zealand’s second city was a scene of “incredible carnage”, police said.
Rescuers had to amputate limbs from Read more…
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)
crisisboom
CRISISBOOM 
You must be logged in to post a comment.