New Zealand moved into level two on Thursday, bringing on unexpected, overwhelming feelings for many of us. Kate Hicks has lived through this before. As we’ve navigated Aotearoa’s wild and unexpected lockdown, I, like others, have enlisted a few coping strategies: Skyping with friends, watching crap TV, consuming copious amounts of coffee and chocolate (though, … Read more
In the second instalment in a three-part series on the Great Journeys of New Zealand, Madeleine Chapman travels from Wellington to Christchurch on the Interislander and Coastal Pacific. Read part one here The young man behind the counter on the Interislander laughed at me when I asked for a glass of red wine. He turned … Read more
Praised for its ability to deal with “human anxiety in times of great distress”, the winners of the Most Innovative Hi-Tech Service award for 2018 is using technology and engineering to help businesses make informed decisions after an earthquake hits (and it only takes two minutes). From Kaikoura to Canterbury, New Zealand has had its … Read more
Thirteen months after it was shattered by an earthquake that ruptured more than 20 faults and triggered thousands of landslides, State Highway 1 is reopening north of Kaikōura. The fragility of the land has brought extraordinary challenges for the rebuild, writes Veronika Meduna Today is a big day for people north of Kaikōura – and … Read more
Auckland University researchers say beams of timber stuck onto the backs of unreinforced masonry façades could be a cheap and simple way to stop them collapsing in an earthquake. Laura McQuillan investigates. Owners of nearly 140 buildings from Lower Hutt to Canterbury have been given until the end of March to secure unreinforced masonry façades … Read more
Whether it’s one year or, in the case of the formidable Alpine fault, 300, looking back to these events should motivate action on building resilience, writes Ursula Cochran of GNS. First, we remember the dead. The two Kaikōura earthquake victims weren’t killed by the earthquake so much as by failure of the buildings they were … Read more
Veronika Meduna watches the gongs get handed out at last night’s big Prime Minister’s Science Prize ceremony. Anybody who thinks of science as the dispassionate study of cold, hard facts would have had their stereotype shattered at last night’s awards ceremony for the 2016 PM’s Science Prizes. Tears rolled and laughter erupted, often at the … Read more
As wildfire continues to ravage the Port Hills above Christchurch, questions are being raised about the scale and efficiency of the official response. When it comes to communicating with the public following a major emergency, why are the lessons of Christchurch and Kaikōura still unlearned, asks James Dann. Christchurch is flat and largely featureless, one- … Read more
The Kaikoura earthquake wreaked destruction, tragedy and misery, but it also generated much scientific fascination. Including: what was going on in the Hikurangi Subduction Zone and those mysterious slow-slip events? Originally published November 23, 2016 A slow slip event off the east coast of the North Island, with an estimated equivalent impact of a M6.9 … Read more
Following the Kaikoura experience, Japan and Indonesia’s mechanisms may offer examples – and there is clearly need to tackle confusion over self-evacuation, writes geologist Jane Cunneen Following the magnitude 7.8 earthquake and tsunami on November 14, conversation is turning to whether New Zealand should have a 24/7 earthquake monitoring and tsunami warning system. The prime … Read more
We all agree about Māoritanga’s vital place at the heart of New Zealand culture, so why, asks Luke Tipoki, are we so relaxed about letting incorrect Māori pronunciation slide? Kai Kora, Kai Kura, even Kia Kora (as I heard one person say on the six o’clock news the other night). Following the devastating earthquakes last week we’ve … Read more
Did anyone in Wellington actually get any work done last week? Sarah Lang suspects not. I finally joined the Twitterati (@sarsoss) days before what became Trumpocalypse. Rather than joining a virtual celebration of a glass ceiling in shards, as expected, I watched The Spinoff’s Trumpocalypse Rating swing from ‘panic/stockpile’ to ‘all Hail Dear Leader Trump’, … Read more
Barely a month into his mayoralty, Justin Lester found himself leading a major disaster response following the 7.8 Hanmer Springs earthquake. He looks back at how the city handled the quake and its aftershocks, and lays out what can be done better next time – because there will be a next time. Last week’s earthquake … Read more
A slow slip event off the east coast of the North Island, with an estimated equivalent impact of a M6.9 quake, was detected this week. GNS Science geophysicist Laura Wallace explains this important new area of seismic research, and what’s up with the Hikurangi subduction zone Among the most fascinating discoveries in the days following … Read more
View the impact of seismic activity on sea level following last Monday’s magnitude-7.8 earthquake in this visualisation by Richard Clark, with commentary from geophysicist William Power. Comparing the quake drum and tidal gauge nearest to the Kaikoura quake, web developer Richard Clark has created an animated reconstruction of what happened following the violent magnitude 7.8 … Read more
Gerry Brownlee’s intemperate response to the GeoNet director’s calls for a 24/7 response centre can only damage further scientists’ willingness to share their expertise with the public, writes Richard Easther. On November 17 my alarm went off simultaneously with a call from Radio New Zealand asking me to do an on-air interview about the end … Read more
Steve Braunias finally gets around to writing about the event he got sent to cover by Wellington Tourism – LitCrawl, which kind of got overshadowed by this thing that happened on a Sunday night. I was all set to write about Wellington’s very lively and audaciously staged LitCrawl live-event literary extravaganza last Monday, but the … Read more
Tsunami scientists have returned from Canterbury, where they found at least one spot of severe damage from the tsunami that followed the Kaikoura earthquake, and it’s a powerful reminder that you shouldn’t wait for a formal evacuation, explains Caroline Little of GNS In the days since the earthquake, much of the focus at GNS Science … Read more
On a bus in Colombo Street five years ago, I experienced first-hand the hazards of sacrificing safety in the cause of an urgent return to normal service in the city, writes Ann Brower On February 22 2011, everyone around me died when a red-stickered building collapsed on to a bus I was riding. I was … Read more
GeoNet have published their latest future scenarios and aftershock forecasts following the M7.8 quake that struck early on Monday morning. Their advice follows … To help understand the earthquakes and what to do about them, many people what to know what will happen next? While we can’t predict earthquakes we can provide some forecasts of … Read more
The Kaikoura earthquake lifted long strips of coast out of the sea on Monday morning, in parts as high as two metres. Ursula Cochran and Kate Clark of GNS Science and Sharyn Goldstein of the University of Canterbury explain what’s going on. Much of the northeastern coast of the South Island was uplifted during the … Read more
A newly released map reveals the extraordinary complexity of Monday morning’s monster magnitude-7.8 earthquake. GNS Science earthquake geologist Nicola Litchfield explains what we’re looking at. Below, Ursula Cochran explains the big picture. Following the Kaikoura earthquake early on Monday morning, GNS Science geologists Nicola Litchfield and Pilar Villamor flew south by chopper from Wellington to … Read more
The Kaikoura earthquake underlines the need a 24/7 monitoring centre for geohazards, writes NZ GeoNet director Dr Ken Gledhill in a moving message that pays tribute to New Zealanders’ response and the extraordinary staff at GeoNet. As I said in a previous post about the five-year anniversary of the 22 February 2011 Christchurch Earthquake, I’m … Read more
Geonet has released newly calculated aftershock probabilities that put the chance of one or more M6-6.9 quake in the next day at 37%. Rapid field reconnaissance indicates that multiple faults have ruptured: Kekerengu Fault at the coast – appears to have had up to 10m of slip Newly identified fault at Waipapa Bay Hope Fault … Read more
Geonet recorded 878 events in the 24 hours after the monster 7.5-magnitude shock, more than 300 of them 4-magnitude or greater. Here Chris McDowall plots the quakes on an animated map. This animation shows all the earthquake events recorded by GeoNet’s monitoring network between Palmerston North and Christchurch on Monday, November 14. The big quake … Read more
Earthquakes are unpredictable and uncontrollable events, which makes them scary – for everyone, but particularly children. These five tools can help your child cope with the aftermath of a major earthquake. 1. Focus on information and reassurance Giving age-appropriate information about how earthquakes happen can help them to understand. Be matter-of-fact and encourage questions. Talk … Read more
Naomi Arnold describes a terrifying night in Wellington, a phone alarm that warns ‘delicate land could sink under the sea’ and the solace of both Chilean tourists and RNZ’s Susie Ferguson. You take RNZ for granted most of the time. It’s always there – in the kitchen, in the car, snippets at a workshop in … Read more
Early childhood teacher and mother of two Donna Eden shares her advice for keeping kids calm and comforted during the quakes. We are all feeling pretty shaken by last night’s quake and aftershocks, especially our little folk who don’t have the same understanding of events that we do. Schools, kindergartens, and ECE centres are closed … Read more