A2-B1-B2 New Zealand
an extract from the BBC
I talk to my neighbour, who says she has spent 10 minutes just looking at a butterfly when she should be tidying up. Life seems unreal and time seems to unravel.
We keep telling ourselves time will put this right. With time, the aftershocks will lessen. With time, power and water and sewage will be restored. With time, our roads will be repaired. With time our houses will be rebuilt. With time.
But at the moment time goes slowly. Time brings us pain and anguish – and fear that we might not have the strength to get through this. Time brings despair because all that we have built up has gone and our future is in jeopardy.
Researchers are investigating the relationship between September’s Magnitude 7.1 quake and last month’s 6.3 event.
The latter is very much considered to be an aftershock from the first, even though they were separated by six months.
The former occurred about 40km to the west, rupturing a similar length of fault. The most recent quake ruptured about 15km of fault.
What scientists need to know now is the nature of any “seismic gap” between the two; that is, a segment of fault which was not broken in either tremor but which may have been loaded with additional strain because of both those events.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
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