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Power outages follow Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake #eqnz

Ann Arbor, December 22, 2011 - Three strong earthquakes of more than magnitude 5 hit Christchurch, New Zealand today, disrupting the power and telecommunications networks in the area and damaging roads and structures because of liquefaction of the soil. Damage and injury estimates are incomplete as of this writing.

According to USGS, three earthquake hits christchurch today , 5.8 at 01:58:36 PM, 5.3 at 02:06:25 PM and 5.8 at 03:18:02 PM #eqnz

Power grid operator Orion New Zealand is providing network updates via Twitter on the status of the electrical grid during the aftermath of the quake; follow @OrionNZ for details. The updates via Twitter are happening in addition to their normal reporting on their web site:

Due to the extent of outages on the Orion network at present, we are unable to update this page.  We will resume usual updates as soon as possible.  In the interim, please see our home page for general updates about power supply following the December aftershocks.

5:20pm: We are unable to update the outages page at oriongroup.co.nz at present, as we are still scoping #eqnz works

Telecom New Zealand issued this update, also via Twitter

Full update from us - some congestion, some sites on battery backup, pls txt instead of calling if you can: http://cot.ag/rF9daM #eqnz ^RI

The NZ Raw weblog has photos and video of the damage, which includes liquefaction of the soil.

(A geologist) was keen to use the photos in a paper he was writing and said (and I more-or-less quote) “I’ve been to substantial earthquakes all over the world for the past 30 years and I haven’t seen liquefaction anywhere near as bad as it is in Christchurch. You guys are pretty interesting right now!”

The hash tag in common use for the event is #eqnz, and usage of that tag is nearly universal.

Oklahoma earthquakes, November 5-7 2011 and historical

ANN ARBOR USA, November 5-7, 2011 (Vacuum News) - There were a series of earthquakes in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, but we didn't feel them here in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Some maps and news from people who did feel the quakes follow. The data here are preliminary, and you'll want to go to the USGS page for the Oklahoma quake for details, and Oklahoma earthquake history to figure out how normal this is. The Oklahoma Geological Survey is likely to also have excellent data.

News coverage from the New York Times quotes Austin Holland, a research seismologist with the Oklahoma Geological Survey; Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center; and Justin Reese, who runs the Boomarang Diner in Chandler, Oklahoma.

The earthquake, originally reported at magnitude 5.2 and then upgraded to 5.6, was said to be felt [as far away as Milwaukee] - a claim which is being tested and that I haven't confirmed. Additional aftershocks were reported; the map is by Dawn Endico using the Google Maps API. Earthquake data provided by the U.S. Geological Survey on Mon, 07 Nov 2011 01:14:04 GMT.

Damage to homes in the area has been reported to the Lincoln County Emergency Management system on Facebook.

A map, from USGS - did you feel it?

Another map, this one showing historical patterns; the red marks are quakes. The source document gives more seismic data.

This ESPN football reporter covers the story live, though it's hard to know that it's not a story from the Onion News Network.

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