|
Apparently there have been 10 aftershocks over mag. 5. Mag 5 is a big shake in it's own right. At 6.3 this is a smaller quake than last year but it is quite shallow and that tends to make the impact greater.
A friend returned this week from a conference in Christchurch where one of the papers was an assessment of the effect of different soil types on damage caused by the last quake. There were cases of very similar buildings close together that suffered very different amouts of damage (from nil to demolished) and it appears that the soil type could be the reason. Clay tends to suffer liquifaction and so there is damage whereas gravel tends to maintain its integrity. A geologist I just spoke to who knows the area well (been here for decades but grew up in NZ) is a bit confused by the location of the epicentre as it appears to off the fault.
Anyway, that can all be worked out later. The job at the moment is to look after the victims. I assume Australia will be sending whatever aid we can. Two disaters within a year - that's tough.
|