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The order of magnitude 6.0 earthquake that shook New Zealand today ( June 13 ) caused startling liquefaction , where soils move similarly to a liquidness , subvert buildings and other structures . The liquefaction in New Zealand was conquer on telecasting .
good coastlines , harbors and rivers , soil is often wet and sandlike . The shakiness of earthquakes gives this territory a jiggling effect , turning it temporarily from a solid to a liquified land .
Today ’s temblor bust 5.6 miles ( 9 kilometers ) belowthe Earth ’s surfaceand walk out 8 mi ( 13 kilometers ) north - NE of the city of Christchurch , New Zealand . This combining of shallow profundity and cheeseparing proximity to the city is why it was feel so powerfully at the control surface and triggered the liquefaction .
" If it ’s a deeper quake , we do n’t get the surface effect , " say Julie Dutton , a U.S. Geological Surveygeophysicist in Golden , Colo.
Today ’s quake was an aftershock of the order of magnitude 7.0 quake that come to the country on Sept. 3 , 2010 near Darfield , New Zealand , according to the USGS . The quake also triggered amagnitude 6.3 seism that shake up Christchurchon Feb. 22 and killed a reported 181 masses . Only underage injuries and legal injury to buildings already weakened by late seism were reported for today ’s quake .
Big aftershocks may continue to sway the land for some time , as estimate these earthquake is nearly out of the question .
" There ’s not really a hardened timeframe where the seism will peter off , " Dutton differentiate OurAmazingPlanet .
Today ’s earthquake was a dominantly strike - slip geological fault earthquake , a chemical mechanism where fault systems slide side - to - side when two architectonic plates coffin nail header . This most recent quake broke at the eastern destruction of the breach of the February magnitude 6.3 earthquake .
All the seism since the September 7.0 quake have been along the boundary of the Pacific and Australia plates in the key South Island , New Zealand .
New Zealand is a land of island along the volatilePacific Ring of Fire — a narrow zone around the Pacific Ocean where a large chunk of Earth ’s earthquake and volcanic eructation come about . Roughly 90 percent of all the earth ’s earthquakes , and 80 percent of the largest ones , work stoppage along the Ring of Fire .
Every year , New Zealand has between 100 to 150 quakes large enough to be felt , according to GNS Science , a New Zealand earth science research firm . Since records begin being keep in the 1840s , New Zealand has averaged several magnitude 6 earthquakes every year , one magnitude 7 every 10 old age , and a order of magnitude 8 every century , GNS said .
The June 13 temblor was preceded by a nearby magnitude 5.2 foreshock about 1 hour and 20 minutes earlier . There is no specific open break that has been observed for the earthquakes that have hit since September near Christchurch , according to the USGS .
