Earthquake!!!

!Hello Everybody! We (Trent, Shelley, Aya, and Rowan) are all doing fine. Well, mostly - the earthquake was a little scary but our house was undamaged (our neighborhood was mostly OK, unlike East ChCh and downtown); unfortunately I have a brutal virus that has me alternatingly shaking with chills and sweating with a fever. The earthquake was pretty interesting, really, but the 120+ aftershocks (many were Richter 4 or higher) are a little unnerving. We're playing 'spot the tremor first' - "Earthquake!!". Earthquakes are louder than I thought they would be.

This was a fairly big earthquake, actually; several buildings collapsed, especially near the ocean where the homes are built on sand. Whole neighborhoods will have to be demolished out there (apparently, despite being near several active faults, the earthquake engineering here is pretty limited). We actually had three more large aftershocks last night (three days after the initial quake), but I believe the experts think that that was the last gasp of the event.

The fault was very close to the city (40 km or so), and was a fault that no one even knew existed (they now estimate that it hadn't shifted for 160000 years). Bizarrely, there is another MUCH larger fault about 150 km away that is due to release in the next decade or so - and it is supposed to be 8.5 or greater - and it will probably level half the city. Don't buy real estate in ChCh!

I don't think Aya and Rowan even get it - they slept through all the major shakes, although Aya did feel one of the larger aftershocks the next day. It was a beautiful sunny day - nice if you have to stay home...

The university is a mess - it is closed for at least a week. Some buildings are damaged, but EVERYTHING is off the shelves and out of cabinets - papers, books, preserved collections, chemicals, etc. Cleanup will take a while.

More later! We`re in the parking lot of the library - it is still closed, but the wireless is working!

Take care,

Trent.