tinalouie

Do I need to bring a hard hat with me, how bad are they on the North Island?

Pulaski

That you even have to ask, should tell you all you need to know.

tinalouie

Oh dear, that bad :-(

tinalouie

Am I crazy even contemplating moving to the end of the world ?

Pulaski

When was the last time an earthquake in NZ hit the international news?

Assuming you didn't blink and miss the reports, how many fatalities did it cause, and how many hundreds of millions of dollars did repairs cost?

[Clue: most NZ earthquakes are barely noticeable, and someone posted a few days ago here on BE that in 20 years she had never even felt one.]

tinalouie

The Christchurch one stands out, but until then I hadnt heard of any so thanks for putting my mind at rest and apparently the Christchurch one on the scale of earthquakes only happens once every 100 years so I feel better about the whole thing now. Thank you :-)

garethwm

It depends where on the North Island you are going. The areas most at risk are Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa and Wellington. The last devastating one was at Napier (Hawkes Bay) during the 1930s which basically destroyed the city. The areas of Auckland, Northland, Waikato and Northern Bay of Plenty dont generally get earthquakes. There was a very small one in Auckland about 5 years ago. For a lot of people here it was the first one they had ever felt. Other people didnt even feel it. The areas of Taranaki, Wanganui and Manawatu get the occassional small one but are not considered risks of a large one.

Parnell

North of Rotorua it would be very rare to feel any tremors


Not something I would even think about, unless you were heading to Wellington or south Island.

MrsFychan

we felt at least 7 in the first few months of being here, gave up counting after that. There was a major one some months after that which had the fish tank water spilling out and had people having difficulties getting home because they had to check the rail line. Police where organising car shares out of wellington CBD.

We have a very active line at the moment is the area of Seddon, top of South Island which is felt also in the lower North Island and obviously the large ChCh one was also felt on the North Island. Just because you are not in the area of the epicentre does not mean you won't fell them.
You have to remember there are many many fault lines and they even found a new one last year. Also that NZ is a volcanic island, and the volcano's are active though not gone off for many many years. Because of that how things are set up like electricity are not ground based but over ground so you will get power cuts due to weather.
Also there have been tsunami warnings because of the proximity but as far as I am aware non have lead to any fatalities unlike the earthquakes.

Get yourself in geonet and monitor the earthquakes and felt reports and you will say the frequency and how it was felt throughout the islands.

jmh

There are large parts of NZ which don't experience quakes. They're easy to identify on geological maps/diagrams. Ditto tsunami risk areas. I bought a coastal property and checked the tsunami risk before I put in an offer - some areas are very low, others quite high. So long as you do your homework first, you reduce your risk.

LauraNotts

I don't live on the North Island and I am smack bang in the middle of Christchurch and we are still wobbling Btw the Christchurch faults that ruptured have something ridiculous like a 14,000 year re-occurrence cycle so you're pretty sweet there.

Our Valentines day quake (5.7) was the biggest one I'd felt close up. I'll admit it was scary and the aftershocks rattle you for a few weeks afterwards BUT perspective is important.

NZ is built to cope with big earthquakes, there are strict building standards and there are agencies and plans set up to manage the aftermath of big earthquakes. Generally you are very safe anywhere in NZ when it comes to these things.

I read somewhere that as a country we're supposed to get 4-5 6.0s and above per year and one 7.0 or above every 2-3 years. That's just what we get.

To give you some idea of what ours feel like in Chch (shallow so 'feel' bigger).

2.0-2.9: I might only notice this if its right after a big shake or if I am lying down still and even then I'm like 'huh?'

3.0-3.9: I don't always feel these, but it's sort of like standing right beside a big truck going fast. Things rattle for a second and that's about it.

4.0-4.9: This is where you might start to get a bit of a fright. The shaking feels harder and might last a couple of seconds but realistically the worst that's ever happened to me is my lamp wobbled a bit. Stuff (our newspaper) likes to make big dramatic headlines. People post on Facebook and complain a bit but nothing really happens.

5.0-5.9: I've only ever felt one of these up close and yes it was pretty scary but the damage was very limited. I had a few things fall down off my shelves and needed to replace a light fitting. It's like your house is shivering and there's a bit of noise that comes with them too. You can also feel a sort of jelly like wobble under your feet for a good few seconds after the main shake.

NZ safety law means that after a shake of this size public buildings usually close for checks, in areas like Chch there may be mud that spills out onto the roads (liquefaction) and some damage to houses (cracks in walls) or cliff collapses etc. Again when this shake hit Chch everything pretty much carried on with little physical after effect. People have learned from the shakes we had here and taken steps to cope with known problem areas - so far its worked.

6.0-7.0: Can't comment up close but from far away these feel like waves (and if you're in the upper NI this is likely what you will feel if anything). You might feel a gentle swaying motion for a couple of seconds and then a sharp vibrating jolt followed by more gentle swaying. At a distance these quakes don't usually cause much damage.

Take away message is: Don't panic, this is normal for NZ and it's a pretty safe place mostly because of it.

MrsFychan

They are now after the last big ChCh quake but that is not true for all places. Most large office blocks in Wellington CBD would not pass the Earthquake requirements nowadays. There is 31 pages (673 in total) of listed building within the CBD which fail and that list was last updated 10/02/16

LauraNotts

Well yes Wellington increasingly scares the crap out of me when I go there but I am trying not to frighten the uninitiated

MrsFychan

they need to be aware of the day to day issues. Earthquakes are one. You also need to have plans in place for when there are travel conditions that means you cannot get home/work etc and let people know where you are and what you intend to do. You also have to factor in the upkeep of the emergency kits and make sure you have fresh water and first aid kit, good shoes, warm clothes in the car, again for the same reason.

Not to frighten but to inform

jmh

LOL, I went there on business a month ago and I admit to being a tad nervous.