Serpo
21st July 2013, 01:46 AM
The Pacific Tsunami Center in Hawaii said the quake did not generate a tsunami.
A spokesman for Civil Defence Minister Nikki Kaye confirmed a civil defence emergency had not been activated.
He said Kaye was on a private trip and unavailable. Chris Tremain was the acting minister.
Tremain was being kept briefed by the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management.
A sequence of major earthquakes have been hitting Wellington and wider areas around central New Zealand since Thursday.
The most recent series of major quakes put the quake-prone capital city on notice early this morning.
At least one person had been reported injured in Kapiti, and infrastructure across the central and lower North Island, and the top of the South Island had ground to a halt.
Phone lines jammed in the central North Island immediately after the large quake struck as people tried to call family and friends, a Telecom spokeswoman said.
Both the mobile network and the landline network were overloaded for 10 to 20 minutes.
''There was a spike in traffic straight after the quake hit, which is as we would expect - everyone getting on the phone (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8945358/Big-quake-shakes-central-New-Zealand#) to make sure their family is OK.
''To the best of our knowledge there's no network damage.''
Vodafone customers were also affected when nine mobile sites went down immediately after the large quake.
Sites in Marlborough were affected by power outages and two Wellington sites lost coverage, a spokeswoman said.
''Some customers may have had problems with calls and tects following the quake - issues compounded by overloading on the network, rather than damage.''
The network was now stable and all mobile cell sites had been restored.
People were advised to send text messages, instead of calling, to ensure emergency calls could get through.
A Kiwirail spokeswoman said services from Otaki in the North Island to Kaikoura had been suspended until further notice.
There could be some disruption to freight services (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8945358/Big-quake-shakes-central-New-Zealand#) between Picton and Kaikoura, while an inspection of the tracks, bridges and tunnels was done, the spokeswoman said.
A spokesman for the NZ Transport Agency said an initial damage report of state highways in the quake zone was done and no damage or blockages were found.
The agency would carry out more detailed inspections tomorrow, he said.
The 6.5 magnitude quake was likely linked to a fault in the Cook Strait capable of generating far more severe shaking, said GNS Science.
Dr Kelvin Berryman, GNS Science director of Natural Hazards, said the severe shaking over the past three days was probably linked to one of several faults capable of generating shakes of magnitude 7.0 or more.
The most likely candidate was the Needle fault, although the location of the series quakes over the past three days did not quite match up.
He said a larger quake was unlikely but the swarm that kicked off on Friday morning was not following the normal aftershock pattern, in which the tremors became progressively less severe.
This afternoon 6.5 magnitude shake, the biggest in the latest swarm, meant the shaking was following the usual pattern, he said.
GNS should have a clearer idea of the probability of another big, or even bigger, quake by tomorrow, he said.
Aftershocks were expected to continue (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8945358/Big-quake-shakes-central-New-Zealand#) for days following this evening's magnitude 6.5 quake, and Wellington was shaken by another just before 7pm.
A magnitude 4.6 aftershock was recorded at 6.59pm, 30 kilometres eat of Seddon at a depth of 17km.
GNS Science research seismologist Stephen Bannister said there had been more than 230 earthquakes since Friday in the area, with about 15 above magnitude 4.
"People will be feeling shocks that register above [magnitude] 3, and we have had about 50 of those since Friday.
"It's not a simple main shock followed by aftershocks, it's an evolving sequence."
With earthquakes of this size, aftershocks should be anticipated in the coming days, Dr Bannister said.
"We would just encourage people to make sure they have their emergency kits and rations ready for future events. We can't say how many more large ones to expect."
The Earthquake Commission announced earlier this month that they had renegotiated $3.25bn in reinsurance cover.
Chief Executive Ian Simpson said at the time that EQC has sufficient cover to meet the costs of a "significant' disaster.
If there were a sequence of events, as in Canterbury, it would have up to $6.5bn in cover. A spokesman for EQC minister Gerry Brownlee said EQC had "ample to cover any future event."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8945358/Big-quake-shakes-central-New-Zealand
A spokesman for Civil Defence Minister Nikki Kaye confirmed a civil defence emergency had not been activated.
He said Kaye was on a private trip and unavailable. Chris Tremain was the acting minister.
Tremain was being kept briefed by the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management.
A sequence of major earthquakes have been hitting Wellington and wider areas around central New Zealand since Thursday.
The most recent series of major quakes put the quake-prone capital city on notice early this morning.
At least one person had been reported injured in Kapiti, and infrastructure across the central and lower North Island, and the top of the South Island had ground to a halt.
Phone lines jammed in the central North Island immediately after the large quake struck as people tried to call family and friends, a Telecom spokeswoman said.
Both the mobile network and the landline network were overloaded for 10 to 20 minutes.
''There was a spike in traffic straight after the quake hit, which is as we would expect - everyone getting on the phone (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8945358/Big-quake-shakes-central-New-Zealand#) to make sure their family is OK.
''To the best of our knowledge there's no network damage.''
Vodafone customers were also affected when nine mobile sites went down immediately after the large quake.
Sites in Marlborough were affected by power outages and two Wellington sites lost coverage, a spokeswoman said.
''Some customers may have had problems with calls and tects following the quake - issues compounded by overloading on the network, rather than damage.''
The network was now stable and all mobile cell sites had been restored.
People were advised to send text messages, instead of calling, to ensure emergency calls could get through.
A Kiwirail spokeswoman said services from Otaki in the North Island to Kaikoura had been suspended until further notice.
There could be some disruption to freight services (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8945358/Big-quake-shakes-central-New-Zealand#) between Picton and Kaikoura, while an inspection of the tracks, bridges and tunnels was done, the spokeswoman said.
A spokesman for the NZ Transport Agency said an initial damage report of state highways in the quake zone was done and no damage or blockages were found.
The agency would carry out more detailed inspections tomorrow, he said.
The 6.5 magnitude quake was likely linked to a fault in the Cook Strait capable of generating far more severe shaking, said GNS Science.
Dr Kelvin Berryman, GNS Science director of Natural Hazards, said the severe shaking over the past three days was probably linked to one of several faults capable of generating shakes of magnitude 7.0 or more.
The most likely candidate was the Needle fault, although the location of the series quakes over the past three days did not quite match up.
He said a larger quake was unlikely but the swarm that kicked off on Friday morning was not following the normal aftershock pattern, in which the tremors became progressively less severe.
This afternoon 6.5 magnitude shake, the biggest in the latest swarm, meant the shaking was following the usual pattern, he said.
GNS should have a clearer idea of the probability of another big, or even bigger, quake by tomorrow, he said.
Aftershocks were expected to continue (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8945358/Big-quake-shakes-central-New-Zealand#) for days following this evening's magnitude 6.5 quake, and Wellington was shaken by another just before 7pm.
A magnitude 4.6 aftershock was recorded at 6.59pm, 30 kilometres eat of Seddon at a depth of 17km.
GNS Science research seismologist Stephen Bannister said there had been more than 230 earthquakes since Friday in the area, with about 15 above magnitude 4.
"People will be feeling shocks that register above [magnitude] 3, and we have had about 50 of those since Friday.
"It's not a simple main shock followed by aftershocks, it's an evolving sequence."
With earthquakes of this size, aftershocks should be anticipated in the coming days, Dr Bannister said.
"We would just encourage people to make sure they have their emergency kits and rations ready for future events. We can't say how many more large ones to expect."
The Earthquake Commission announced earlier this month that they had renegotiated $3.25bn in reinsurance cover.
Chief Executive Ian Simpson said at the time that EQC has sufficient cover to meet the costs of a "significant' disaster.
If there were a sequence of events, as in Canterbury, it would have up to $6.5bn in cover. A spokesman for EQC minister Gerry Brownlee said EQC had "ample to cover any future event."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8945358/Big-quake-shakes-central-New-Zealand