Our First Earthquake!!

Yesterday, while Kirsten and I were minding our own business, drinking tea in the lounge, we heard a loud noise coming from somewhere behind the house, and Holly came charging in from outside, whining and panting. Before either of us had a chance to get up and see what it was, the whole house started bucking and rolling! An earthquake! It was not how I had imagined an earthquake at all - I think that I would have expected more shaking or even vibrating, but it was a lot like being on a small boat in very choppy water. In fact, after it had gone on for several minutes (a long time, apparently, for an earthquake), I felt seasick! Which is funny, because I have spent a decent amount of time on the ocean in small boats, and never get seasick.

The house jumped around, seeming to get yanked in all directions by turn, my car in the driveway rolled back and forth, a couple things fell off the shelves, the light fixtures swung around... and Kirsten and I divided our attention between watching with interest and trying to comfort Holly, who was not at all pleased with the situation. After it calmed down, we had several minutes of not being quite sure if the ground was still moving, or we were just shaken. My car kept moving for a few minutes, so something was still going on, and then finally everything settled. At that point, Kirsten remembered that when this happens, you're supposed to get under a door frame or a table or go outside, away from buildings. She is apparently not very phased by earthquakes, and so it didn't occur to her. And that suited me fine, since I was just astonished and excited. Next time, however, I will be more careful.

J was at work, about 1/2 an hour closer to the earthquake, when it happened. He was in a very solid, steel building, which seems to have handled it better than our little house, but it was still an adventure. He was alone in his office, so he hid under his desk at first, and then the employees came and took him outside. Apparently, all the sheep in the stock yards totally freaked out, but they calmed down relatively quickly.

So, there you have it. Our first earthquake. As it turns out, it was a 6.2 on the Richter Scale, which means it was "Severe." Palmerston North got the worst of it, and Wellington got some damage as well, but so far there are no reports of major injuries, so that's good.

Here is a link to the Geonet page on this earthquake. Geonet is very cool - you can see all the earthquakes that have happened in NZ in the last few weeks, and they are posted almost instantly when they happen. In addition, people can click "Felt It" and put in their experience of the earthquake in their location, which is neat.

http://geonet.org.nz/quakes/region/newzealand/2014p051675

Here is a link to an article in the NZ Herald about the earthquake and its effects. It describes the damage and events better than I could.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11189343

I'm glad that everyone is okay, and that our first experience of an earthquake was exciting, but not scary.