Friday, February 22, 2013

(small) Earthquake

For my friends in the Midwest:
I just felt the my first definite Earthquake here. I was lying down reading and there was this whole jolt to the house and the windows rattled. Kind of like the feeling one has when one is in a train car and they are adding another carriage.

Of course I jumped online to find out more ... it was 3.9 on the Richter Scale, and the epicenter was about 19 km away (another source put it just above 4 on the Richter scale) and III on the Mercalli Scale. It originated at about 7.7 km depth. Here are all the details:

http://geonet.org.nz/quakes/region/newzealand/2013p141660

I was actually woken up last night by a very small one too (around 2.5 I think) just before 3 am- at first I thought it was someone breaking in - then I realized that the window had just shaken ( old windows, rattly catches).

Today was the 'anniversary' (I put it in quotes because I usually think of that word in a happy context) of the Feb 22 Earthquake in Christchurch, with tragic loss of life and devastation of the city center. There was a memorial service on campus just round the corner from the geology building - as well as many others throughout the city.

No comments: