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| Earthquake damage in Christchurch, NZ Photo: Heather Hapeta |
The South Island city of Christchurch (population 348,000) continues to endure aftershocks from a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that rattled building and nerves and closed the commercial core of this city renown for it British colonial buildings. Christchurch is the 2nd largest city in this island nation of 4.3 million
New Zealand experiences 15,000 earthquakes each year but only 150 are felt and fewer than a dozen cause damage. While this earthquake was of a similar magnitude to the quake in Haiti that caused 230,000 deaths and catastrophic damage, at last report there were no known deaths caused by this quake but damage reports continue to grow. The damage is estimated to be $UD 1.4 million.
According to travel writer Heather Hapeta who lives near the city center in Christchurch, “it’s mostly old buildings from the 1800s and early 1900 s that have been damaged … my cat, Mista is still hiding as we are still having after-shocks.”
Photos of the earthquake damage from Heather’s blog.
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Photos: copyright Heather Hapeta 2010
Links:
Bloomberg
Emingrate2NZ
NZ Travel Blog
Restless Country: Volcanoes and Earthquakes of New Zealand
New Zealand Coromandel Geology Tour
