Canterbury Earthquakes

[Storm Struck]

It was big here took a long time to start loud rumble then strong shunting lights swinging back and fourth.
Nothing up by Geo Net as yet very slack its been nearly half an hour since , land lines were down briefly id say about a 5.5 .

[David]

Geonet has 5.5, 10km east of Lyttleton

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

A long wavy movement here in West Melton. Felt 'Old' as if earthquakes are loosing their strength away from the actual epicentre where in the region that they have been occuring lately.

[snowstormwatcher]

Yeah felt it down here slight swaying motion, Knew it had to be reasonably big to feel it here.

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Reports of being Felt in Invercargill and Nelson. Went for good 30 seconds here. Biggest since June 13. A lot of side to side movement! Just piss off seriously! To think the game that is on atm was meant to be played here at AMI Stadium. Imagine 43,000 fans going through that!

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

A lot of side to side movement! Just piss off seriously! To think the game that is on atm was meant to be played here at AMI Stadium. Imagine 43,000 fans going through that!

It could be some sort of 'Spanish Wave' but with the stands moving as well

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Haha, yes we will look at it like that!

[Orion]

Felt here in Mayfield - unmistakeable: rattle and sway.
Enough!

[Nev]

Don't mean to split hairs but, 'Spanish wave' is a hair-style; think you mean 'Mexican wave'.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Don't mean to split hairs but, 'Spanish wave' is a hair-style; think you mean 'Mexican wave'.

That's the one Nev.
Mexican and Spanish are the same, really
Mind you if the Spanish were playing against the All Blacks at Lancaster Park

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Had a wee bit of a rumble and a 'light vibration' at 1106am this morning.
It was like a traction engine going past
It's on the drum but nothing from Geonet yet?
Must of been very local, one of the West Melton Golf Club ones.
Looks as the same strength as the last earthquake recorded in Darfield.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

I was at work today and it was mentioned at smoko, did anyone feel the earthquake just after 11am yesterday.
I was aghast, as I thought it was just me that felt it, as despite the recording on the McQueens drum, it never came up on Geonet or a X or anything appeared on ChCh Quake live.
Anyway, still nothing from Geonet about the above earthquake but they have recorded 8 others??????
This shows that lots of earthquakes are being ignored despite their presence as recorded on the seismic drums?
Anyway, I sent Geonet a report mainly because I felt the ruddy thing

[Storm Struck]

I understand the frustration John, theres been a few local small ones here over the past year or so and even though i sent my felt report in nothing is posted.
Most smaller ones like on the drums today and tonight might get put up tomorrow when they turn their pagers on .
Here is a good site which shows the ones that Geo Net doesnt post up, even alot of moderate shakes in there in the 4 plus range.
http://quakemap.co.nz/

[Storm Struck]

Small wobble just before first ive felt since about 2 weeks ago when we got that 5.5, it was a 3.8 in Rolleston i dare say reacting to the Kermadec movement this morning ( moving down the chain so to speak ).

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Something to note is clearly Quakecrowe posts more earthquakes up than Geonet does at the time. However they do get posted on quake live eventually. For example, the other day it said no earthquakes in 24 hours but then they had gone back and put an earthquake from 20 or so hours ago up, they have even gone back days and updated.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Small wobble just before first ive felt since about 2 weeks ago when we got that 5.5, it was a 3.8 in Rolleston i dare say reacting to the Kermadec movement this morning ( moving down the chain so to speak ).

Interesting Jase.
This morning's quake was about as strong as the unrecorded, well officially unrecorded quake, at 1106am last Sunday the 16th, which also is the last quake I have felt here in West Melton.
This one came up fairly quickly on Geonet whereas last Sunday's one still hasn't been officially noted, whereas a lot of uneventful tremours since then, have been?

[Skywatcher]

That 3.8 was the strongest I've felt (and recorded) here since the Weedons 4.0 on 28th September. I felt the one at 11:06 last Sunday but it wasn't as strong here and my detector didn't register it at all.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

I felt the one at 11:06 last Sunday but it wasn't as strong here and my detector didn't register it at all.

I noticed that it wasn't even mentioned by a X on Chris Crow's site either?

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

As razor mentioned in another thread, nearly 48 hours without an aftershock (touch wood). Anyways an interesting article in the press this morning from GNS around energy release for the Canterbury quakes. The 7.1 had energy of that of a magnitude 7.99 (effectively a mag amazing to think that happened just 30km away. In a way that is more reassuring when it comes to thinking about the Alpine! If we can do fine from a mag 8 (energy wise) just 30km away then we can handle a Mag 8 around 100km away (Alpine Fault)

[Razor]

A shallow 4.9 just now in Marlborugh...would have been similar to our Boxing Day aftershock if you were on top of it

[Storm Struck]

How could the energy be greater from a 7.1 to 7.9 when with every magnitude you go up the force in energy would be far greater in a 7.9 than that to a 7.1? i just take the information that comes through with a grain of salt now as theres so many geologists saying different things.
I do know that the Greendale could have produced up to a 7.9 magnitude, but it hit a sub surface change in bed rock around Rolleston which slowed it down effectivly like it was hitting wall which reduced slippage as the fault ruptured in segments.
I dont blame the scientists for what they are doing in the soil testing because its nice to see them trying to understand how it all works, but why did they have to do that testing at QEll yesterday shaking the ground to see if Liquifaction would ocurr in an area which already had liquifaction.
QEll is right next to Travis Swamp so of course in future quake events there will be liquifaction again, its simple dont build in the area.

[iomkiwi]

I think it was more foundation testing than soil testing - they want to see what sort of foundations will work to help rebuild your city.

[tich]

A shallow 4.9 just now in Marlborugh...would have been similar to our Boxing Day aftershock if you were on top of it

Not that shallow - 15km deep. Boxing Day I think was only 6km.
More than 48 hours with nothing recorded on Quake Crowe, must be 1st time since quakes started.

[Razor]

60 hours now Tich...but sush we don't tempt fate!

[Manukau heads obs]

is it not better to have frequent small quakes to keep the build up of tensions released?
i.e you might be building up to a bigger one?
(not saying you will)
of course though the trend is going to be one of slowly less frequent and smaller...and I guess statisticly you could get a gap like this...