Earthquakes and Trainz

ianwoodmore

Active member
Well that was exciting. We've had a swarm of quakes out at sea off the northern part of the South Island of New Zealand. Probably 50 today following quite a few yesterday. The most severe a few minutes ago was 6.5 and in Wellington we bounced up and down for what seemed for ever. Now everytime there is an aftershock the adrenalin pumps and one dives for cover.

It's rush hour now and I bet all the trains have been cancelled as they will have to check the track and bridges.

Worse still, I was recovering Trainz from a bad update of nVidia graphics driver that didn't rollback properly. Been doing an ADR for a day and a half and quake crashed Trainz so got to re-enter CD Key, ID and password and start another ADR. Enough to make a saint swear.

Edit News report:

A fire service spokeswoman said the phone had been ringing off the hook, with power lines down, people trapped in lifts and multiple sprinkler activations in city buildings.
"We've had reports of damage to some buildings down town. We've got power lines that are coming down."
Every fire truck had been sent to jobs, she said: "We've got all of Wellington out now. And we've got jobs waiting to be addressed. We are prioritising jobs."
 
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Ian

No wonder they call NZ 'The Shaky Islands'. Did it cause any structural damage for you? Mike Sutton, 'Sirgibby' lives in Stratford (I think). He would have copped it, I guess. Hope there are no more aftershocks. Keep us posted if more develops.

Peter
 
Ian

Just seen the map with the locations. They are not far off from Wellington, no wonder you got shaken.

Peter
 
All flights cancelled in and out of airport indefinitely. Runway OK but some concern about navaids.
Many buildings in CBD have lost windows, and others masonry.
Containers toppled at wharf and interisland ferry was told not to berth. Big crack across one of the wharf surfaces.
Some structural damage to buildings including Beehive and Parliament buildings.
Supermarkets are going to have some cleanup to do.
Power out in some areas.
No reported injuries at this stage.
Fortunate it was Sunday evening and not a weekday. Else would have been many more people in CBD.

My place is some 15km out of CBD and doesn't look like I suffered any damage. It's dark now so can't do full inspection but don't see any internal cracks. Daughter and Granddaughter were here for dinner at time the major quake hit. Sent us moving fast for doors or under tables.
 
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oh earthquakes, how I hate you. if you get what I mean.
hope the earth didn't hear that.



smiley-taunt003.gif

 
I went through a few earthquakes when I was in Alaska. Not fun. I also went through Kodiak, AK about 6 months after that gigantic good friday quake. Not much left and everyone living in green (marine) plywood shacks. Hope everything turns out well for all of you down under.

Ben
 
Welp, I'm sitting at home here in Manor park after they closed hutt workshops this morning for checks... this is actually giving me more trainz time lol.

William :)
 
Whenever people think of earthquakes in America, they normally think of the San Andreas Fault out in California. Well, the strongest earthquakes produced in the U.S. was produced in the New Madrid Fault Zone, which is named for the nearby town of New Madrid, MISSOURI. The earthquakes were about 9 to 9+ on the Ricther Scale. However, I live near the East Tennessee Rift Zone, an 'intercontinental fault zone' that stretches from northeastern Alabama, thru northwestern Georgia, and into southeastern Tennessee. An earthquake occurred several years ago in the early morning that was strong enough to break a natural gas line in Chattanooga. More recently, we had another earthquake, this time in the afternoon on a Sunday. I could actually hear it before I felt it. It was a low-pitch VOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. It seemed to me that instead of the earthquake occurring at one spot on the fault line, this one seemed to move; following the path that the fault runs. It was strong enough to give our home, and furniture, a good shaking, but we did not have any structural damage to our home. I must note that the first earthquake caused everybody in the house to wake up, except me. Obviously I sleep like a rock.
 
Everyday that I wake up, I thank my lucky stars that we are sitting on a stable portion of a thin crust of earth, less than 5 miles thick, on top of a magma core planet, that still has a nook-clear fusion furnace of lava inside.
 
Here we go again in Wellington at at the top of the South Island near Seddon.
http://info.geonet.org.nz/display/home/Latest+News
The railway lines are closed again for inspection after a 6.6 magnitude quake this afternoon followed by a swarm of hefty aftershocks, with one just an hour or so ago as big as 6.0 on the Richter Scale.
It's Friday night here right now and thousands of Wellington commuters are currently walking or hitching rides home after all trains were cancelled following the 6.6 shock.
Fortunately, there are no known injuries or deaths reported so far...
It's going to be another sleepless night on both sides of Cook Strait!
PC
 
Err - that's supposed to be "...in Wellington AND at the top of the South Island near Seddon". For some reason the edit facility wasn't working.
PC
 
I was in Wellington Friday morning for a dental appointment but had gone home prior to the quake. When the quake struck later in the day I was driving my car in Tawa just north of the city. My car seemed to be driving strangely. It felt like it was wallowing on a flat tire and/or a shock absorber was bust. I didn't realise at the time that the car was reacting to a road surface that was moving. There was no obvious external 'I am an earthquake' indication. It was only when I got to the pharmacy a few minutes later and saw the white faced trembling shop assistant that I discovered I had been driving my car during a 6.6 earthquake with two >5 immediately after. In the 3.5 hours following there were at least 77 aftershocks of which 11 were greater than magnitude 5.

The All Blacks' test with the Wallabies next weekend is under threat after today's 6.6 magnitude earthquake which rocked central New Zealand.

The Rugby Championship test is due to take place at Wellington's Westpac Stadium tomorrow week, however, the venue will have to undergo a thorough inspection before the match can be given the go ahead.
The stadium has been closed for the weekend with a major dinner event and an illuminate paint party cancelled.
"We will have engineers through doing inspections as soon as we can, so we can have sign off for the test,'' marketing manager Steven Thompson told Fairfax Media.
The process used was the same one for the previous earthquake, he said.

In the meantime the Trainz DLS has finally regurgitated the hundreds of stuck assets and allowed me to download them and get on with my repairs and testing. It used to be every weekend but now the dreaded lurgy hits any old time just like the quakes. It is disappointing that we suffer so much from a DLS with constipation. I recommend a dose of Andrews Liver Salts, a stick of black liquorice and a jar of prunes. An unwell DLS results in a grumbling forum and in the long term is not good for Trainz.
 
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Honestly, im sick of these EQ's. when the first "big one" hit, i grabed the cat and droped my laptop! because of my dropping in a panic, i did damage and have lost four of my recent routes :'( i lost: Kenepuru-Paekakariki, Suberbun rail, Woburn workshops and the Jville line. I was just starting on Kenepuru, so i'll start again. Sub railway was an experiment so im re-building it from the start. Woburn and Jville.... I HAD JUST FINISHED AND THEN LOST!!!!! :':)'( *sigh* i guess i got start again untill yesterdays hit and this i grabed my computer and hid under my desk at school! and gave my compu- oh goody an aftershake! anyway i gave my computer the blue screen! thankfully i had everything backed up this time :D so thankfully i havent lost my new route! well i hope other wellingtonians reading this have had no damage or injury and i wish all wellingtonians best of luck getting through this!!!!
Cheers Jeran
 
Had another one 5.5 at 8.58 p.m. NZ time. No damage here but enough to give us a bit of a shakeup and slop some water out of my fish pond.

Cheers,
Bill69
 
There's nothing you can do about them so no real point in being negative - I was on the loco stands (scaffolding basically) at the time and it was definitely an interesting experience... there was a DFT on the 100t crane too - one would think it was a toy. but hey, I enjoyed my Friday arvo off work.

William :hehe:
 
Ian, have you guys thought about moving to San Francisco area, you'd only have to deal with them about every five years or so. Knock on Wood!
 
I live straight in the heart of tornado ally but luckily all the bad stuff goes around our city thank the lord and we have had many close encounters. If something were to hit my computer and take all my work I dont know what id do.
 
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