Earthquake

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Cripes Ian!

 

Is that your own photo? And if so, did you get it in the paper?

 

Neil

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

hi Neil,no and no, Similar one in local paper. It happened again about a week ago, not so bad, perhaps they’ll have to put a bridge over the fault line1Ian S C

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

Where was that?

John

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Or they could put a station in the loop ?

 

John S.

[NilochParticipant @niloch]

Spent three weeks in New England (USA) just recently observing the fall foliage colours (or perhaps colors would be more appropriate!) amongst many other things.  Experienced a small earthquake in New Hampshire early in our visit, sounded just like a lorry (or perhaps truck would be more appropriate!!) rumbling over a wooden bridge. Scarcely a ripple on the pond though.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Hi John, its a bit south west of Christchurch NZ, on the Midland Line. Thats 110lb track, its not light weight stuff, I think this line takes about 1/4 of NZRs’ total tonnage.

The earthquake was 7.1, about the same as the one in Haiti at the beginingof the year.

Neil, found were it came from, I got a copy on a bit of paper, I think it came of a site on Google, and its the same as the one in the paper. There must be hundereds of aerial photos, even if there was only one from each fly over, ait traffic was heavy, both fixed wing and helicopters.

John S,I’v been trying to think of an “interesting” caption for it! It maks you wonder where the extra rail came from, its a staight length of line, and its welded, got joints every hundred or so metres. Most (including this bit) of the track has wooden sleepers(ties), some areas have concrete sleepers but they do not withstand the abuse the wooden ones do. Ian S C

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Looking at the movement of the track, but not the ballast, I’d guess that extra compression over a very long length of line added up and escaped by buckling just this one short section. And it is a short severe bend, not foreshortened by the angle, as you can see it happens over only a couple of dozen sleepers.

 

Neil

[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

This implies that it is now not as far from Christchurch to Greymouth as it used to be.

 

There are also some quite good photos showing roads and lines of trees displaced  by the movement along the actual faultline, which was both vertical and horizontal. Not all earthquakes actually cause a visible fault trace.  This particular fault was not known to exist beforehand, since any surface signs from previous movement were covered in gravel and silt.

 

regards

John

 

 

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

I don’t know of measurements, but when there was an earthquake further south last yr(I think), we moved nearer to Austrailia by a foot or so,and the fault line at Aurthers Pass moves 8-10 inches in a year, that where the quake was concidered more likely to happen. Ian S C

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