Earthquake (5.9 near Christchurch New Zealand)

Hope everyone at GGG and your loved ones are doing ok after that big earthquake hit Christchurch.

Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/45nmoq/christchurch_new_zealand_has_been_hit_by_a_59/

Dammit :( not again.

5.9 is pretty low on the scale, but Geonat describes it as severe so it probably pretty shallow.

Malls etc. have been evacuated, some building damage and what not.

They reported it was 15km deep and 15km from Christchurch, and in an area where there are lots of faults. The concern of course is that more severe quakes could follow as they typically do. That said, Aukland where GGG is is pretty far from this fault area and the internet backbone of NZ seems to go through Auckland to all points outside of NZ, and will probably be unaffected by this or other earthquakes.

I didn't even feel it here in Wellington.

Fingers crossed the aftershocks are wimpy.

Is curious how the realities of people change depending on certain factors... I'm Chilean. Here most people worry about earthquakes just when they are about 7. For us an earthquake 5.9 is something unimportant. Although we know that an earthquake of low magnitude for us can be devastating to others.

I sincerely hope this "earthquake" has not been a problem for anyone.

Blargwargleblargh.