Hey New Zealanders, are you OK?

[Rath]

pacman91 said:

Rath said:

pacman91 said:

Rath said:

Yep. I actually live in Christchurch and the earthquake was pretty damned freaky. Really feeling for all those that lost loved ones at the moment.

Are there earthquake building codes in New Zealand?

Very good ones, largely because of fears for our capital city which is built on a major fault. It's unexpected for the quake to have hit in Christchurch.

Hmm, just curious.  Seattle had a 6.9 quake in 2001, with no where near the damage as this quake. I'm sure they are different scenarios though.

This quake was shallow at 5km deep, right near the city - only 10km from the city centre. It also followed a large earthquake 5 months ago and over 4000 aftershocks which will have weakened buildings.