Mother Nature's Way of a Christmas Party

Just in case anyone read the news (seeing it's currently on BBC frontpage on the web) - we just had another series of aftershocks. First one hit around 2pm and was of magnitude 5.8 (and shallow). We've had another several of similar magnitude (at least what felt like) since though not officially reported yet by GeoNet. I am ok and so are all my family & friends.

Just putting it out there in case anyone worries.

It had neen pretty quiet in the last few months with hardly any noticeable aftershocks. Well, Mother Nature sure knows how to party. Last year she shook us with a decent one on Boxing Day (day after Christmas & biggest shopping day of the year).

Here are some attractive seismic drum images I nabbed off GeoNet website. Ooh here's another aftershock as I'm typing. The first image shows all the different major seismographs we have in the country. As you can see by the big thick black lines going across, we've had some decent shakes here. 

Ooh, another sharp jolt. After over a year of shakes day in and day out, really, you get used to them. I didn't even duck under my desk although we hadn't had a decent shake in months.

*SORRY IMAGES GOT LOST*

 http://geonet.org.nz/earthquake/drums/

 

 This one below is specifically the McQueen's Valley seismograph. It's the closest one we have to Christchurch. All the red bits indicate where the graph has been cut short to prevent it from cutting across into the other lines (indicating it was a reasonable shake - usually if the red bit's quite thick like it is here, it's a big shake). You can see how quiet the graph had been up to about 2 hours earlier, and BAM! Surprise from Mother Nature!

*SORRY IMAGES GOT LOST*

 http://geonet.org.nz/earthquake/drums/mqz-drum.html
  

 Thank god we still have power at home. I hear phone lines have been out since the first quake.

Anyway, I just put that up for interest, because I've always been into earthquake stuff even before we had the September one last year. I used to look it up and such way back in high school as well.

I'm alright here. And by the look of Facebook updates, all my friends are too :)

Take care everyone and I'll update you with some cards soon - when I can be bothered replacing the batteries in the camera LOL