Christchurch was badly hit by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake last Tuesday. Many people have lost their lives; many more their homes. "Speaking among the rubble hours after the minute-long shaking ended, the country's Prime Minister John Key said that it may well have been New Zealand's "darkest day." He declared a national state of emergency to help agencies cope with the catastrophe. Many of the fatalities occurred when the entire building housing Canterbury TV and a language school collapsed at the height of the business day" (earthweek.com). The following media articles tell the story:
BBC
Guardian
Telegraph
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| Image from Earthweek.com |
The following website is very interesting- it shows all the earthquakes in Christchurch and by selecting Tuesday 22/2/2011 in the show day drop-down, you can see the fatal quake and all the aftershocks.
Click here.
An interesting point to consider is the fact that this earthquake was less powerful than one which struck before Christmas- what reasons might there be in explaining why the larger quake did less damage?
