[time-nuts] New Zealand, Iceland, Haiti

[Kiwi Geoff]

Brooke Clarke wrote:
> When you look at the time difference between the recent events on a geologic
> scale you could say they all happened at the same time.

Hi Brooke, I'm writing from my home in Christchurch, New Zealand.

"Local Time" of the event  is an important variable.

Last Saturday we had a 7.1 Richter magnitude event here, which was
higher than that of Haiti (where there were 230,000 deaths). We had no
loss of life in Christchurch mainly because it happened at 4:35 am
local time, and because of our building code, as per:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/4096880/Why-we-re-not-Haiti

We are still experiencing magnitude 5 aftershocks here as I speak, and
for those who like graphs, here is a live feed of the seismograph from
Christchurch.

http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/drums/mqz-drum.html

I now know my home can withstand a magnitude 7.1 earthquake, but it is
a test that many houses in Christchurch have failed.

Regards, Geoff.