Big earthquake in Christchurch

Oh dude this sucks. Watching it on tele now, looks like quite a few people have lost their lives in this one. Very, very rude.

What I don't understand is how their earthquake of 7.1 (?) about 6-12 months ago didn't cause any casualties and minimal structural damage, but this slightly smaller quake has caused much more destruction....Is it because of where the quakes were centered?

Yeah, it depends on where it is, how good construction codes are...and the terrain, too. In this case, I saw footage of rocks the size of houses coming down hillsides.

The September earthquake hit at 8am on a Saturday morning whereas this one was midday on a Tuesday when people where at work and on lunch break.

Also, the quake epicenter was closer to the surface, and closer to the city center, although in a different location.

Rupp confirmed to be in Aust still.

Webb expected into Wellington today, but unconfirmed whether he has arrived prior to airspace being closed about 30 mins ago. Will Leer, Brendon Bethke, Lee Emmanuel, Willis already in Wellington, but luckily not in ChCh.

ITM meeting very likely cancelled for 2011, but no official announcement yet from organisers.

Will Nick Willis ever get that medal?

Did we already know Webb was racing in NZ? What event, 1500m?

Was looking like Webb was going to do the 800m at ITM.

Rupp & Salazar are in Auckland, Webb due to get into Wellington tonight. Willis and his guys are in Wellington, unsure about others,

The summary measure of Magnitude is a combination of the area and the level of shaking. Thus, this earthquake and the one in Haiti may have hit a much more concentrated with greater shaking. The Chilean quake was the opposite, with a very large area of large shaking, but the maximum shaking was lower (and primarily near few many places of habitation.=).

Thanks to all above for explanations.

Webb confirmed to be in Wellington. Was running 800m on Saturday although that was to be officially confirmed by the meet organizers today.

Rupp in Australia still - he has confirmed this by text to a friend. Salazar not in Auckland yet, so is likely that he is in Aus with Rupp, or perhaps not left US yet.

All others, Bethke, Willis, Emmanuel, Leer etc all in Wellington and safe

Rupp's pacemaker was due to leave Kenya in a couple of hours - don't think he'll get on that flight now!!

halfr wrote:

Rupp's pacemaker was due to leave Kenya in a couple of hours - don't think he'll get on that flight now!!

use webb

So now Rupp can go to Melbourne and be Solinsky's and Lagat's pacemaker.

A dozen or so of Japan's top marathon women are training in Christchurch right now.

QEII Track where Meet will be held has sump holes and water everywhere - unlikely meet will go ahead.

Japanese Runners still in Chch, no word if they are safe but area around New Brighton is one of the worst hit.

yeah if New Brighton is bad then the meet is done for. The reason why this earthquake was smaller in magnitude but so much worse is that the first one was centred 31km under ground, this one FIVE kilometres under ground.

Unlikely Ha

Forget anything in Christchurch except survival for the next 3 weeks, then watch the exodus.

The place is stuffed !

One of the Japanese staff just updated his blog and said all the athletes and support staff are OK and have moved to a less damaged part of town.

Nick Willis posted this at NZRun.com:

There are a bunch of us ready to run an exhibition mile (and an 800m for some) at Newtown on Saturday once given the official word. Hayden Shearman is going to help organise a fundraising platform, and we can make this a good opportunity to help in what little way we are able to the CHCH cause.

if interested in running a fast 800m or mile, please facebook me, and I will help put the potential fields together.