
New Zealand earthquake: Tsunami follows powerful tremor - lifeisstillgood
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-37967178
======
toomanybeersies
Currently in Wellington. Was fucking shaky, seriously thought the building was
about to collapse. This was ~500 km from the epicenter.

We were evacuated and let back in. All the planning in the world doesn't
prepare you for the real thing, the first thing you're meant to do is keep
calm, and I sure as hell didn't. I sprinted right the fuck out of my apartment
building, I have 4 levels above me, hiding under a table wasn't going to do
shit to save me.

The building has some cracks in the plaster and food has fallen off all the
shelves, but nothing serious. The water seems to be running a bit brown
though, so maybe some damage to the water pipes.

Props to the crew at Bizdojo
([http://www.bizdojo.com/](http://www.bizdojo.com/)) for opening an invitation
for us to come and chill there if we couldn't get back into our homes. Doing
the right thing there!

~~~
avar

        > I have 4 levels above me, hiding under a table
        > wasn't going to do shit to save me [...]  food
        > has fallen off all the shelves,
    

The advice to hide under tables isn't meant to save you from the entire
building collapsing, but from injuries sustained from stuff falling off
shelves & the non-structural parts of your roof collapsing.

~~~
enraged_camel
Also, some tables, particularly heavy wooden and metal tables, can withstand
lots and lots of weight. Hiding under them can help you avoid getting your
skull bashed in by a falling slab of concrete.

~~~
wiredfool
The one biggish one I went through was in Seattle, where I was in a startup.
We had cheap IKEA desks, which barely held the computers. I bolted for the
door, which was the wrong thing to do in a brick clad building. Thankfully, we
were on solid ground on Capitol Hill, not the fill in Pioneer Square, so I
didn't get hit by falling cornice.

------
idlewords
Description on Twitter: "The shaking went on for ages, longest quake I've
felt. It was like waiting for a Verge article to finish loading."

[https://twitter.com/thefoehesought/status/797814348672421888](https://twitter.com/thefoehesought/status/797814348672421888)

~~~
dmix
Brilliant, too bad he didn't say Forbes. That would be more accurate.

~~~
digi_owl
Meh, forbes is more a problem with those pesky pre-load screens. The Verge
site is a massive heap of dung even after loading. I swear every image is
loaded as RAWs and then converted via JS into something edible by the browser,
or some other "hipster artistry".

------
antome
Magnitude 7.5 earthquake. For reference, I felt this in Hamilton, a bit under
1,000 KM away. First earthquake I have ever felt. Hamilton never, ever gets
earthquakes.

Nevertheless, NZ infrastructure is built to withstand this sort of stuff. Only
$100m-1b economic damage is expected, no casualties expected.

~~~
elorant
The problem with earthquakes is that damage accumulates. So while a building
might stay intact or with minor damages during the main one, the aftershocks
could wreck havoc. And with an 7.8 aftershocks could last for months and be
quite severe.

Nevertheless I hope everyone is OK and wish you the best. I've experienced
quite a few earthquakes in my life, although nothing over 7, and the shock
stays for long. It's one of those times in your life when you feel completely
helpless.

~~~
disordinary
Yes but all multi Tennant buildings and large buildings will be inspected.
We're pretty used to this and have some of thebest earthquake engineers in the
world.

------
r721
Better resolution map:
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxJjRotUUAAJK-w.jpg:large](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxJjRotUUAAJK-w.jpg:large)
(from
[https://twitter.com/NZcivildefence/status/797809307597213696](https://twitter.com/NZcivildefence/status/797809307597213696))

Some tweets with photos:

[https://twitter.com/ThomasMeadia/status/797806928520880128](https://twitter.com/ThomasMeadia/status/797806928520880128)

[https://twitter.com/ThomasMeadia/status/797809032635420672](https://twitter.com/ThomasMeadia/status/797809032635420672)

[https://twitter.com/HenryMcMullan/status/797813785461334017](https://twitter.com/HenryMcMullan/status/797813785461334017)

~~~
r721
Map updated:
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxKErQkUQAArm_4.jpg:large](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxKErQkUQAArm_4.jpg:large)
(from
[https://twitter.com/NZcivildefence/status/797846187197902848](https://twitter.com/NZcivildefence/status/797846187197902848))

------
zoltrain
I'm from Christchurch, contacted family there. There's been mass evacuations
from the coastline. Tsunami's have started but they can last for hours.
Kaikoura has already had a a surge measured 2.5m, if this is the case the
waves will get worse before they get better. But NZ is pretty prepared for
these things, so hopefully everyone scampers to the safe distance from the
coastline. I worry about the Chatham Islands, they're directly east of the
epicentre, and Tsunami's travel very fast. I hope they've all gotten to high
ground.

~~~
EdwardDiego
No, that 2.5m high one was the worst of the waves.
[http://images.geonet.org.nz/tsunami/plots/latest/detide.png](http://images.geonet.org.nz/tsunami/plots/latest/detide.png)

It was most likely caused by a movement of sediment into the Hikurangi Trough.

~~~
Freestyler_3
Then why is it still reported that waves 3-5 meters are expected?

~~~
zoltrain
Civil Defence are doing their job, getting people away from the coastline.
There maybe Tsunami's there may not be, better not to take any risks. Must be
protocol when any of the Tsunami alarms are triggered.

------
xupybd
Anyone know what the lights were about?
[http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/strange-lights-during-
earthq...](http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/strange-lights-during-earthquake-
confuse-onlookers-2016111404) or is it a hoax.

I'm in Palmerston North a long way away, but that was the biggest quake I've
felt.

~~~
lightlyused
link to video
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hIQaJg3lVM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hIQaJg3lVM)

~~~
JshWright
Yeah, that looks like transformers popping (falling off poles, etc).

~~~
flukus
Some of the videos are showing these lights out over the ocean.

------
warpech
I was just reading this today on Wikipedia: "No evidence has been found of any
correlation between supermoons with major earthquakes."

~~~
mnw21cam
Well yes, because a supermoon is just when the moon being close to the earth
happens to line up with the moon being full. The moon comes this close to the
earth once a month.

------
mingabunga
I'm from Christchurch which is about 100km away. Felt like a long rocking boat
ride. Luckily it wasn't violent, unlike our 6.3 quake in 2011 which
accelerated the city vertical by a foot, dumped it down and smashed
everything.

------
boznz
Had to laugh, consoled my daughter on the phone from here in the South Island
last night and said "See, trumps been in 3 days now and the world hasnt ended
yet" and at midnight it sure felt like it had!

~~~
dgritsko
At the risk of sounding pedantic, he doesn't take office until Inauguration
Day on January 20.

------
g4k
Here a link to the list of recent earthquakes:
[http://www.geonet.org.nz/quakes/felt/severe](http://www.geonet.org.nz/quakes/felt/severe)

~~~
vixen99
Another link: [http://www.emsc-csem.org/](http://www.emsc-csem.org/).
Initially showing a map of Europe, it provides however, a global list with
location and intensity in tabular form.

------
snapit
I am in Hanmer Spring on holiday with the kids. Was 15km from the Epicenter
when it hit. Big shake for a long time. One of the kids didn't wake up...
worst thing that happened in our house was the shampoo falling into the bath,
so pretty blessed there. All roads closed so guess we have an extended
holiday. Lots of very big after shocks.

------
czep
Could there be any connection to the moon's current proximity to Earth? Does
anyone know to what extent the moon's gravity can influence earthquakes? Tides
are one thing, but it seems plausible that the moon being closer to earth than
it has been in 68 years could be moving the plates a bit more than usual.

~~~
kaybe
In general, there is a connection. The earth tides have an amplitude in the
tens of centimeters [1] (yes, the earth moves under our feet!) and a
connection to earthquakes is a given, since the stress changes on faults can
trigger them. Here is one example: [2] Their research also indicates that a
higher stress can trigger earthquakes not triggered by lower stress since the
local fault strength must be exceeded.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_tide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_tide)

[2]
[http://www.pnas.org/content/113/31/8601.abstract](http://www.pnas.org/content/113/31/8601.abstract)

~~~
disordinary
GNS scientists are saying there's no connection.

------
nom
Can someone please edit the title?

And wow, this looks heavy. I hope everyone is well.

~~~
overcast
There's that word again. "Heavy." Why are things so heavy in the future? Is
there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull?

~~~
snovv_crash
It's surfer slang, elements of which have made their way into a lot of the
English spoken in NZ, Oz and SA.

~~~
slyall
He is quoting the movie "Back to the Future"

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088763/quotes?item=qt0416301](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088763/quotes?item=qt0416301)

~~~
disordinary
It doesn't matter, it's not appropriate when people are trapped under
collapsed buildings and are dead.

~~~
dvtv75
You seem to know something that others don't. What's your source on that?

~~~
disordinary
I was part of the first response for the Christchurch earthquake providing
technical support and co-workers in my old job are trained USAR engineers that
were deployed overnight. But most of this information is from the NZ media. We
aren't talking high fatalities, but USAR are looking for a couple of missing
people and there are buildings that have collapsed, people were also stuck
under a vat in a winery and had to be cut out. There are two people dead but
not much information is coming out of the most effected area because most
communications are down.

------
M_Grey
"Tremor"? I mean, IMO anything 7+ is more than a tremor.

------
danielmaxwell
Can I just say — stoked to see all the kiwis on HN!

------
rav
Unfortunately the "Latest Felt Quakes Map" at
[http://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/geonet](http://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/geonet)
doesn't work because the website has exceeded 25,000 map loads in a day.

~~~
asdfxcvbjh
This one works:
[http://earthquaketrack.com/quakes/2016-11-13-11-02-56-utc-7-...](http://earthquaketrack.com/quakes/2016-11-13-11-02-56-utc-7-8-23)

------
adrianratnapala
Do we expect to see this wave on the other side of the Tasman? And if so, will
it be big?

~~~
Hondor
Unlikely because the earthquakes were on the East coast of New Zealand, away
from Australia.

------
doldge
Cross-posting from my FB feed:

Here's some of the interesting stuff I've found on the internet about today's
earthquake (that they're now calling a 7.8):

1) real-time Buoy data, for helping to determine the likelihood of a Tsunami:
[http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/](http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/) Interestingly, the
quake only caused a tiny change in the sea level (in the region of 5 cm's) but
the expected swells on land are in the region of 3-5 meters. I believe this is
because as the wave gets closer to land, it get's funneled into a smaller
area, meaning the 5cm change in sea level gets amplified. Which is why it's
hard for the civil service to accurately predict whether a tsunami is likely
when these events occur (That, and the nearest working buoy is in Tonga),
which would by why they almost always say yes, and then retract the warning
later.

2) the USGS science-y explanation for what actually happened. The take-away
seems to be that this may have increased the stress on the primary fault in
NZ. Interestingly, their's a a suggestion that the rupture was across the hope
fault, rather than along it, which helps to explain why the after shocks have
been so varied (by location):
[http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us1000778i#...](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us1000778i#executive)

3) also from USGS, a map indicating affected regions, with town populations,
and the likely economic impact of the quake:
[http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us1000778i#...](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us1000778i#pager)

4) The Canterbury Police shared a link earlier that indicated 3-5 meter swells
is around the maximum we should expect from a locally generated earthquake
(due to the nature of fault lines in NZ), that's not to say we can't
experience a larger tsunami, but that said tsunami would have to be generated
externally (like say, south america), which should in theory give us more time
to prepare. But like all things, this isn't a hard and fast rule.

5) there's a pretty cool video of what purports to be lights in the sky over
wellington during the earthquake (probably has something to do with magnetic
interference from the energy released by the quake):
[https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%...](https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fzachary.bell.315%2Fvideos%2F1854573738108559%2F&show_text=0&width=560)

6) stuff have had pretty good live coverage here:
[http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/86416304/live-north-
canterbu...](http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/86416304/live-north-canterbury-
quake)

7) The USGS website indicated that the quake lasted around 2 minutes, with the
highest intensity coming around 50 seconds into the quake.

~~~
Freestyler_3
1) I think it was because the 5cm height is backed by a huge width, when
crawling towards the land slope creates a very strong (not necessary high)
wave that just keeps pushing forward.

~~~
snowwindwaves
Tsunami waves have an extremely long period. A good surfing wave forms when a
swell 2-5 m amplitude with period 13-24s when it starts to feel the bottom of
the ocean.

The amplitude of the tsunami wave in the open ocean is much smaller than wind-
generated swells but they can have periods of 60-70 minutes so they are more
of a surge that just keeps coming when they hit land, and as you say when they
start to feel the bottom they stand up and the large volume of water in the
wave makes it stand up larger and more powerful than you would expect for a
smaller amplitude swell.

Every wave has a peak and a trough and the trough of the tsunami wave is what
causes the water levels to recede so drastically before the wave hits.

Geographic features like valleys that get narrower and narrower will cause the
same volume of water hitting the coast to make a much more drastic change in
water level

------
minikomi
Not 100% applicable to New Zealand but here's the Tokyo disaster prepardness
book --

[http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/GUIDE/BOSAI/](http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/GUIDE/BOSAI/)

It has a lot of good practical information -- especially chapters 1 & 4\. We
all got one sent to our homes, and I thought it was quite useful!

------
s0ulphire
Good on this guy for getting the warning out early, 7.2 or greater and
potential for a tidal wave, spot on old chap!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isl1Gtg74e4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isl1Gtg74e4)

------
sethammons
When I was a kid, the 1992 Big Bear Landers earthquake hit in Southern
California. That was a 7.6 if I recall. So I can relate to what those in NZ
are feeling. Our rock chimney collapsed and fell off the house, nearly
crushing my mom who was outside at the time.

------
rodgerd
Parts of the South Island have moved 2 metres closer to the north. That's a
big shunt.

------
JumpCrisscross
Does anybody know the status of RocketLab's facilities [1]?

[1] [https://rocketlabusa.com/rocket-lab-launch-
complex-1-ready-f...](https://rocketlabusa.com/rocket-lab-launch-
complex-1-ready-for-launches/)

~~~
tcheard
Oh those are well up the North Island, they probably didn't even feel it
there. Or if they did, it would have been very mild.

~~~
frio
They do have employees in the South Island too (mainly Christchurch), and were
looking at Birdling's Flat as a launch site. However, I imagine anyone
involved in the South will also be fine -- Christchurch rolled around but
didn't suffer much damage.

------
anondon
Does anyone know if there is any special effort to construct buildings that
can withstand reasonable earthquakes in New Zealand?

Christchurch seems particularly prone to quakes in New Zealand. I hope the
people of New Zealand are safe.

~~~
adrianmacneil
Yes, there are earthquake standards for new buildings, and mandatory
retrofitting for older buildings (as they are updated).

From what I've seen, this is pretty similar to San Francisco. It would be
interesting to see data comparing the standards across earthquake-prone
countries/regions.

~~~
disordinary
I used to work for a structural engineering company that had offices in both
NZ and California, from what I understand the standards of earthquake
engineering in NZ are higher than in California.

To be honest I think you're probably safer in a large earthquake in a post
Christchurch NZ than in a small earthquake in a country that doesn't usually
get them.

------
santaclaus
Damn that is really scary. I used to work in Miramar (Wellington suburbs),
which is built on reclaimed sea, if I recall, and everyone was freaked out
that a major earthquake would liquify the entire area.

~~~
lacampbell
Huh? Miramar is a steep hilly peninsular. Are you talking about Rongotai?

~~~
antod
The flat bit in the middle that is most of the Miramar suburb is seabed (and
later swamp) that has been uplifted by large earthquakes over time.

~~~
lacampbell
TIL. Born and raised in Wellington city and never knew that.

------
LyalinDotCom
Really wish the best to all the people impacted here, stay safe!

------
upen
Hoping all are safe and stay safe in New Zealand!

------
blueprint
Anyone know of a group or website which is tracking the incidence and
intensity of earthquakes over time?

~~~
cossatot
[http://www.globalcmt.org/](http://www.globalcmt.org/)

Scroll to the bottom and look at the chart of cumulative energy (moment)
release over time. This is probably the easiest visualization what you're
looking for without going to scientific papers. It only goes back to the 1970s
though. The big steps are the Sumatran earthquakes and Tohoku (Japan). There
were some equally big steps in the 1950s.

As far as I know (and I do this professionally) there is no evidence for any
real variation in the global, time-averaged rate of earthquake occurrence or
energy release. However the time window to average over has to be several
decades to centuries depending on how comfortable one is with noise. Any
individual segment of a fault will have an earthquake repeat time (for a
significant earthquake) of hundreds (San Andreas fault) to tens of thousands
of years, and is lots of evidence for clusters of earthquakes on individual
faults or sets of faults, but this is mostly a local effect--the stress
changes in the crust caused by an earthquake can basically load nearby faults
and affect when they will have the next earthquake. But again, this is for the
most part local (<100 km). Globally, earthquakes are essentially unrelated.
That a big one may hit Chile and then Japan in short order is happenstance as
far as the seismological community is concerned (though it's not dogma, and
long-distance 'teleseismic' triggering is investigated--it just doesn't seem
to be a big deal).

However, earthquakes in the news aren't a good reflection of global seismic
statistics. Earthquakes like the Italian events (M6-6.6) over the past few
months (and years) occur every day, but mostly in the ocean basins and don't
affect people other than shaking some palm thatch roofs in Vanuatu. The most
deadly event (minus tsunami) in my lifetime was the Haiti earthquake in 2010,
killing ~200,000 people, and it was a pretty routine, moderate-magnitude
event. It just hit an incredibly vulnerable population.

~~~
blueprint
You're the real MVP. Thanks for your understanding of my question and the
info. I get what you're saying about cumulative energy release over time and
it's interesting to note the effect that earthquakes' periodicity has on how
we need to sample the data. Very useful.

------
reddytowns
So the tsunami was 1 foot Hawaian style. Doesn't seem too big...

~~~
disordinary
The tsunami risk was low because it was an inland quake, however they enacted
a tsunami evacuation as a precaution. Would you rather they take a risk?

~~~
reddytowns
Oh, for sure, of course I would! That is _exactly_ what I meant by my comment.

------
imaginenore
Videos of the earthquake:

[https://youtu.be/WcljQHCUm_o?t=20](https://youtu.be/WcljQHCUm_o?t=20)

[https://youtu.be/EsnS28ulJUw](https://youtu.be/EsnS28ulJUw)

News say it's 7.4 - 7.8 magnitude.

~~~
watbe
This is not footage from this earthquake. This earthquake hit at 12am in the
morning so these videos are obviously of another time.

~~~
Luc
> at 12am in the morning

Argh, had to look that one up. 'Just after midnight local time'.

