New Zealand quake rips new fault in earth Officials assess at least $1.4 billion in damage, lift curfew Image: Earthquake damage in Christchurch, New Zealand Google; Jonas Bergler Before-and-after images of damaged buildings on Victoria Street in Christchurch, New Zealand. WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake that smashed buildings, cracked roads and twisted rail lines around the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Saturday also ripped a new 11-foot wide fault line in the earth's surface, officials said Sunday. At least 500 buildings, including 90 downtown properties, have been designated as destroyed in the quake that struck at 4:35 a.m. (12:35 p.m. ET Friday) near the South Island city of 400,000 people. But most other buildings sustained only minor damage. Only two serious injuries were reported from the quake as chimneys and walls of older buildings were reduced to rubble and crumbled to the ground. The prime minister said it was a miracle no one was killed. Power was cut across the region, roads were blocked by debris, and gas and water supplies were disrupted, Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said. He warned continuing aftershocks could cause masonry to fall from damaged buildings, as could gale force winds due to buffet the region Sunday. New fault rips earth Canterbury University geology professor Mark Quigley said what “looks to us that it could be a new fault” had ripped across the earth and pushed some surface areas up about three feet (a meter). The quake was caused by the ongoing collision between the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates, he said. “One side of the earth has lurched to the right … up to 11 feet (3.5 meters) and in some places been thrust up,” Quigley told National Radio. “The long linear fracture on the earth's surface does things like break apart houses, break apart roads. We went and saw two houses that were completely snapped in half by the earthquake,” he said. Roger Bates, whose dairy farm at Darfield was close to the quake's epicenter, said the new fault line had ripped up the surface across his land. “The whole dairy farm is like the sea now, with real (soil) waves right across the dairy farm. We don't have physical holes (but) where the fault goes through it's been raised a meter or meter and a half (3 to 5 feet),” he told National Radio. “Trouble is, I've lost two meters (6 feet) of land off my boundary,” he added. Strict building codes Experts said the low number of injuries in the powerful quake reflects the country's strict building codes. David Alexander / AP People inspect a crack in the South Brighton Bridge approach in Christchurch, New Zealand, Saturday, after a powerful quake struck the region and ripped a new fault in the earth. “New Zealand has very good building codes … (that) mean the buildings are strong compared with, say, Haiti,” which suffered widespread damage in a magnitude-7.0 quake this year, earth sciences professor Martha Savage told The Associated Press. “It's about the same size (quake) as Haiti, but the damage is so much less. Though chimneys and some older facades came down, the structures are well built,” said Savage, a professor at the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University in the capital, Wellington. “Thank God for earthquake strengthening 10 years ago,” Anglican Dean of Christchurch, Rev. Peter Beck, told TV One News on Sunday. Euan Smith, professor of Geophysics at Victoria University, said the fact that there “were no fatalities … it's quite remarkable.” added by: EthicalVegan
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