CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — The powerful earthquake that smashed buildings, cracked roads, and twisted rail lines around Christchurch also ripped a new fault line in the Earth’s surface, a geologist said yesterday....
Prime Minister John Key said it was a miracle no one was killed.
Part of the reason the city escaped major injuries was because the quake happened before dawn, Key said.
“If this had happened five hours earlier or five hours later [when many more people were in the city], there would have been absolute carnage in terms of human life,’’ he told TV One News yesterday.--more--"
"Potent quake hits New Zealand, causing widespread damage but few injuries" by Associated Press | September 4, 2010
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake damaged buildings, cut power, and knocked fleeing residents off their feet on New Zealand’s South Island early today, but there were no deaths and only two injuries reported.
Panicked residents in their pajamas ran into the streets of the southern city of Christchurch after the pre-dawn quake, residents said. There were reports of some people trapped in damaged buildings — though none were thought to be crushed — and a few looters broke into some of the damaged shops in the city of 400,000, authorities said. Army troops were on standby....
The quake hit at 4:35 a.m., shaking thousands of residents awake.
More than a dozen aftershocks rocked the region in the next few hours....
New Zealand sits above an area of the earth’s crust where two tectonic plates collide. The country records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year — but only about 150 are felt by residents. Few do any damage.
New Zealand’s last major earthquake was a magnitude 7.8 in South Island’s Fiordland region on July 16, 2009 — a temblor that moved the southern tip of the country 12 inches closer to Australia.--more--"
