Canterbury Earthquake - first flyover of fault trace

GNS Scientists make an initial aerial assessment of the fault trace southwest of Christchurch

• Category

  Science & Technology

[alnot01]

When the quake hit, everybody was at home in bed. We New Zealanders live in American-style houses framed with 2x4s. That's the best sort of place to be in an earthquake. The wood flexes in a nice way. Even if the wood breaks, your house does not bury you with rubble. Most of the buildings that collapsed were heritage stuff built before WWI, when nobody had a clue about earthquakes, and empty in the wee hours.

[Gruetze1]

Those pictures will find their way in the Earthquake Geology textbooks!

[666Nickw]

or on top of it hahah

[hebneh]

I've always thought how weird it would be to have a fault go through a familiar landscape, like your own property, and see a road or line of trees get shifted so dramatically, the way these views show.

[Lesley birdie]

well guess what it buried people this time. In concrete buildings - duh. The building codes suck in NZ. build wooden /stucco structures as they do in California. But then why bother - I aint going back.

[Lani Alcazar]

Whoa .

[jarrethcutestory]

I live about 400 km from this and it was intense that far away. Imagine if you were standing right next to that

[Aqualiteking]

Can't believe anpther earthquake has hit canterbury

[StrucGeology]

These fracture patterns remind me of our analogue experiments. I "video replied" an example.

[1012Shaggy]

I guarantee your rates will go up...

[solleksify]

Holy jengas. I wonder why I didnt see this on the news... Most likely I just missed it,