BREAKING NEWS - A severe 5.8 magnitude earthquake hits Christchurch, New Zealand Feb 13, 2016 this afternoon. The quake hit at 1.13pm for a few seconds, but was followed by moderate quake with 3.5 magnitude at 1PM, location is 10km north-east of the city.
So far, there is no report of any major injuries or serious structural damage.
However some buildings in South New Brighton were badly damaged, including broken glass and products having fallen off shop shelves.
The eastern margin of the Australia plate is one of the most sesimically active areas of the world due to high rates of convergence between the Australia and Pacific plates. In the region of New Zealand, the 3000 km long Australia-Pacific plate boundary extends from south of Macquarie Island to the southern Kermadec Island chain. It includes an oceanic transform (the Macquarie Ridge), two oppositely verging subduction zones (Puysegur and Hikurangi), and a transpressive continental transform, the Alpine Fault through South Island, New Zealand.
Since 1900 there have been 15 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded near New Zealand. Nine of these, and the four largest, occurred along or near the Macquarie Ridge, including the 1989 M8.2 event on the ridge itself, and the 2004 M8.1 event 200 km to the west of the plate boundary, reflecting intraplate deformation. The largest recorded earthquake in New Zealand itself was the 1931 M7.8 Hawke's Bay earthquake, which killed 256 people. The last M7.5+ earthquake along the Alpine Fault was 170 years ago; studies of the faults' strain accumulation suggest that similar events are likely to occur again.
North of New Zealand, the Australia-Pacific boundary stretches east of Tonga and Fiji to 250 km south of Samoa. For 2,200 km the trench is approximately linear, and includes two segments where old (>120 Myr) Pacific oceanic lithosphere rapidly subducts westward (Kermadec and Tonga). At the northern end of the Tonga trench, the boundary curves sharply westward and changes along a 700 km-long segment from trench-normal subduction, to oblique subduction, to a left lateral transform-like structure.
A 6.4 magnitude strong earthquake hit the southern Taiwan early morning on Saturday, with reports say that it hit the city of Tainan. Several buildings collapsed including a 17-story apartment building where over a hundred residents are trapped. Rescue missions are on the way, while death count at least 3 including a small baby 10 years old girl and a 50-years old man and a 55 years old woman. 150 people are reportedly injured but that number will increase as rescuers are rushing to help those trapped inside buildings.
Police respondents and rescuers mounting hydraulic ladders, cranes and wearing gears and helmets trying to open up doors and windows of those toppled buildings. See photos and images below.
Images courtesy of Daily Mail, Associated Press and Reuters
Some Filipino overseas workers are traumatized with the typhoon although no reports yet if there are Filipino's that was hurt by the earthquake.
On the other note, there was also an eathquake at Quezon Philippines, a minor 4.9 magnitude.
Nagkaroon ng Magnitude 4.9 na #lindol sa Quezon pasado alas sais ng umaga kanina, sa PHIVOLCS.Intensity IV -... Posted by IMReady on Thursday, February 4, 2016
HERE IS AN EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS VIDEO BEFORE AND AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE
