New Zealand rocked by huge quake

Source: CNN

New Zealand rocked by huge quake

(CNN) -- Buildings collapsed, power lines were
knocked out and gas pipes ruptured when a powerful
earthquake hit the northeastern coast of New Zealand
late Thursday.

Media reports in New Zealand, citing the government,
listed the quake -- reportedly felt as far south as
reportedly felt as far south as the city of
Christchurch -- at 6.8 magnitude. The U.S. Geological
Survey put it at 6.6.

There were no reports of serious injury or death from
the quake near the coastal city of Gisborne. But local
resident Phil Robinson, who recently moved to New
Zealand from the United Kingdom, told Television New
Zealand that the quake had caused serious damage to
the city.

-snip-

Television New Zealand said there were no reported
injuries and that despite suffering minor damage,
Gisborne hospital was operating normally. The network
reported eye witnesses saying the city of Gisborne
was covered in glass.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/20/newzealand.quake/index.html

Hope the damage isn't too severe.

be careful

I sorta' hate to give credit to this guy because he's a bit of an egomaniac but I did hear him say that there would be a powerful earthquake.

Of course, he already has it up on his site that he got it right:
http://www.drturi.com/home.php

Scroll down to "AS PREDICTED ON COAST TO COAST 2 DAYS AGO! 7.1 Powerful quake rattles Indonesia."

He's got the quake as more powerful than this report--guess I'll have to wait to see if it shakes out as he said.



Cher

He uses a shotgun method, making numerous random predictions. Anyone could do the same.

Considering Indonesia has at least one major earthquake monthly since July, not hard to "predict" the possibility of another one in Indonesia. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/world/historical_country.php#indonesia

And New Zealand is not in Indonesia. It's west of Austrailia. http://www.iris.washington.edu/HTM/tfhour.html

That entire region is incredibly active - that's along the lines of saying "earthquake will strike California". How many 5.0+ earthquakes hit this planet every day? I think it was something like three.

and as others have already pointed out, that area gets a lot of large quakes.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3102554
Sat Dec-15-07 02:53 AM
BREAKING NEWS: Powerful earthquake shakes eastern Indonesia.
Source: Associated Press

AKARTA, Indonesia - A deep earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 shook eastern Indonesia Saturday, sending panicked residents running out of their homes, the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/video_index_skin/video_index_group

Not so bad according to the local expert.

When I was in Wellington, the local paper published a map of the area showing quake activity. Each quake was marked with a small circle. It looked like the map was blasted with a shotgun.