One week after the big earthquake

As I wrote this we were hit by a 4.5 magnitude aftershock.The are continuing, but are lesser in frequency and magnitude.

The 'A' marks where that 4.5 just hit

What has become a new fascination for many is where the aftershocks are coming from. It is not the same location, but rather along what was, until 4.35 a.m. 4^th Sep, an unknown fault line. Now the aftershocks are making clear where that line is, and it is aimed right at Christchurch.

Was there any evidence of such a fault line prior to the earthquake? No. Canterbury Plains are just that: plains. Flat as a pancake! Head west and you will reach the Southern Alps, which is a known and dramatically obvious fault line, but where Saturday’s big one hit, there was absolutely no indication of the existence of a fault line.

This leads to the inevitable and unanswerable question: what other fault lines lie beneath Canterbury, in indeed any other city/land for that matter? Until some magical technology arises that can detect such things, we will only know them when they tell us they are there…generally in the language of an earthquake!

The image below, on the left, is part of the historic arts center, which was the city's first university. There have been areas of damage to these wonderful buildings, but this one intrigued me most. Just was was it that fell off and made the impression in the grass?