Major 6.3 quake rocks New Zealand city :More than 65 are dead

This is the second large earthquake in 5 months.Massive damage has been reported in the city of Christchurch after a 6.3 magnitude quake.Rescuers dug frantically for bodies and people trapped after a major 6.3 earthquake caused “multiple” deaths in New Zealand’s second city of Christchurch Tuesday, crushing buildings and vehicles.

“The details that we have are extremely sketchy. But the worry and fear of course is that this earthquake has taken place at a time when (residents) were going about their business,” said Prime Minister John Key.

The quake struck at 12:51 pm (2351 GMT Monday), five kilometers (three miles) from Christchurch at a depth of just four kilometers.

Cars were buried under rubble and roads buckled as the tremor opened ruptures in the ground. Police feared multiple deaths, including in two buses that were crushed by falling debris.

On September 4, Christchurch suffered the most destructive quake to hit New Zealand in 80 years when a 7.0-magnitude tremor damaged 100,000 homes, leaving a clean-up bill estimated at NZ$4.0 billion dollars (US$3.0 billion).

The city remained under a state of emergency for weeks with police cordoning off the center for fear of collapsing buildings, as thousands of aftershocks hit the region.

At the time, authorities gave a clean bill of health to Christchurch’s 36,000-capacity AMI stadium, one of the venues for the rugby World Cup starting in September.

New Zealand sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire“, a vast zone of seismic and volcanic stretching from Chile on one side to Japan and Indonesia on the other.

Quake details:

Magnitude 6.3
Date-Time Monday, February 21, 2011 at 23:51:43 UTC
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 12:51:43 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 43.600°S, 172.710°E
Depth 5 km (3.1 miles)
Region SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND
Distances NEAR Christchurch, New Zealand
225 km (140 miles) SSE of Westport, New Zealand
305 km (190 miles) SSW of WELLINGTON, New Zealand
310 km (190 miles) NE of Dunedin, New Zealand
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 12.2 km (7.6 miles); depth +/- 0.6 km (0.4 miles)
Parameters Nph= 0, Dmin=0 km, Rmss=0.98 sec, Gp= 0,
M-type=”moment” magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=D
Source Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Event ID usb0001igm

Links and Sources:

Why Ring of Fire Exists?