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Thursday, February 22, 2007

Time to look at the Earthquakes – the 5% chance.


Early last year, three earthquakes hit the very same offshore area as the three earthquakes that hit Auckland last night, this following on from another two earthquakes that hit the same area in January. Now seeing as Auckland has about 50 volcanoes and sits atop an active volcano field, and there is a 5% chance that we will have another eruption in our lifetime, I kinda think we should start looking at this a little more deeply than we are currently. Officials say that these earthquakes are too far north of the volcanic field, but there is obviously something going on out there – seeing as NZers are well known for their ‘she’ll be right mate’ attitude and we only ever do something when the situation is dire, I’m not convinced of the officials answers.

A volcano blowing up in the middle of a modern city doesn’t sound like a happy ending and seeing as we had hour long traffic jams in Auckland in the weekend for that bloody big boat when it parked its arse in the harbor, the chances of Aucklanders being able to actually get out of the city if a Volcano blew up would be non-existent.


Earthquakes shake Auckland region
Auckland was rocked by three earthquakes last night, the strongest measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale. The tremors, which are unusual for Auckland, were described as shallow quakes and were felt as far afield as Te Atatu and Kawau Island. The smaller earthquake at 8.24pm measured 3.7, the second (4.5) was at 9pm, and the third (3.8) was at 11.23. The quakes were the largest in Auckland since 1970, when the city was shaken by a 4.7 quake centred in the Coromandel. Volcano surveillance co-ordinator Brad Scott, of GNS Science, said quakes were felt on average every three to five years in Auckland. The bigger earthquake was 15km deep and 30km east of Orewa. Mr Scott said the shakes were not an indication of a larger one to follow. And they did not indicate that Auckland's volcanoes would erupt, because they were a long way from Auckland's volcanic field. Two smaller quakes were registered in the same area on January 30, both measuring 2.7.

2 Comments:

At 22/2/07 6:14 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

gee auckland gets a 4 on the richer scale and its all they can talk about!! try living anywhere else and experience a '7' regularly.

 
At 22/2/07 7:16 pm, Blogger Bomber said...

...
Ummm, let me say it slower or something - the reason it makes those in Auckland nervous is because we are a city sitting on 50 volcanoes, it isn't the size of the earthquakes, it is what they might be signalling ie a new volcanoe which we are 5% likely to have over the next 50 years in Auckland - which you would have taken in if you had read beyond 'earthquake' and 'auckland'.

 

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