December 17, 2005

Did the earth move for you?

We had our third earthquake in a month last Wednesday. It was only 2.4 on the Richter scale but quite shallow (7km deep) so plenty of locals felt or heard it, even though there was no damage.
The earthquake report is here.
It's quite rare to get earthquakes on Waiheke Island, we're not on a major faultline unlike other parts of Auckland or the country. The island itself isn't volcanic but the whole Auckland area is a volcanic field "hotspot".
I have only experienced two earthquakes since I've been here. One was about 10 years ago when a quake under the Hunua Ranges (a formation of hills south east of Auckland, where there are faultlines) rocked the apartment building we were living in at about 4am. The swaying of the bed woke me up and I thought my better half was having a wank before I realised it was the earth that had moved for me.

By coincidence the New Zealand Herald today ran a half page photo montage of what a future volcanic eruption in Auckland may look like:

It's to promote an exhibition at the Auckland Museum on volcanoes and earthquakes, but I suspect it's part of Dr Bollard's plan to bring down Auckland houseprices: if his interest rate hikes don't work, some heavy shaking and fiery brimstone might do the trick instead.

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