New Zealand earthquake: Tsunami follows powerful tremor

A tsunami has hit after an earthquake struck New Zealand's South Island.
The US Geological Survey said the magnitude-7.8 quake hit just after midnight (11:02 GMT on Sunday), some 95km (59 miles) from Christchurch.
The tsunami arrived in the north-eastern coast about two hours later. Officials said the first waves may not be the largest, with tsunami activity possible for several hours.
Residents were warned to head inland or for higher ground along the coast.

Terrifying

A gauge at Kaikoura, 181 km (112 miles) north of Christchurch, measured a wave of 2.5m (8ft 2ins), according to Weatherwatch.co.nz.
Smaller waves are said to be arriving in Wellington and other areas, the website said.
But the ministry of civil defence has said the highest waves, which could be as tall as 5m are expected between Malborough, the north-eastern tip of the South Island, and Banks Peninsula, just south of Christchurch.
 Image caption The earthquake was felt across large swathes of New Zealand, including Wellington (aftermath pictured)  Image caption A number of roads have been damaged, including this one two hours north of Christchurch


Image caption The epicentre of the earthquake was just north of Christchurch
Residents in the Chatham Islands, an archipelago 423 miles (680km) south-east of the mainland, were also being warned a wave would hit imminently.
Thousands of people have already evacuated their homes as aftershocks continue to hit the area, Radio New Zealand reported.
Others have taken to social media to offer people a safe bed for the night.
New Zealand lies on the notorious Ring of Fire, the line of frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions that circles virtually the entire Pacific rim.
Christchurch is still recovering from the 2011 earthquake that killed 185 people and destroyed the city centre.
 Image caption Aftershocks continue to rock New Zealand
New Zealand lies on the notorious Ring of Fire, the line of frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions that circles virtually the entire Pacific rim.
Christchurch is still recovering from the 2011 earthquake that killed 185 people and destroyed the city centre.
The Herald newspaper said the tremor was felt all the way to Wellington, where sirens sounded and people fled buildings into the streets, some of them crying.
Early reports suggested some houses in Cheviot town, near the epicentre, have been damaged.

But Chris Hill, a fire officer in Cheviot, said officials had gone door to door evacuating residents and found "everyone seems okay".
He told RadioNZ: "There's a lot of debris in houses, but at this stage it doesn't look like anything too bad has happened."
A resident of Christchurch said the tremor lasted a "long" time.
"We were asleep and woken to the house shaking, it kept going and going and felt like it was going to build up," she told AFP news agency.
On Twitter, Hayley Colgan described it as "the the most terrifying earthquake I think I've felt in my 23 years in New Zealand".
A magnitude-7.1 quake struck 169km (105 miles) north-east of Gisborne on the North Island in September, sparking a tsunami warning. It caused some damage to property, but no injuries.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-37967178

They don't call NZ "The Shaky Isles" for nothing...

Still not a scratch on that Christchurch quake from just a few years ago..

(With a magnitude of 7.8 though, this latest 'quake could still be nearly a hundred times more intense than one that hit here, back in 1989 (The Newcastle Earthquake)..).


As for the "tsunami" -- to get a really serious Tsunami, you would need either a massive underwater landslide/rockslide or a volcanic eruption several miles of the coast, as a result an earhquake.

After one massive earthquake over there a few years back, there was a "Tsunami warning" for the East Coast of Australia..
When it eventually reached here, all it did was to add a couple of inches (5 cm) onto the waves lapping the beaches and entering the harbours...          

Seems there is an awful lot of damage:

New Zealand earthquake: thousands stranded and towns cut off – as it happened
Updates as scale of damage across parts of New Zealand’s South and North Islands becomes clear

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/nov/14/new-zealand-earthquake-evacuations-tsnuami-east-coast-south-north-islands


Aerial photo taken and received on Monday shows debris causing a huge dam, north of Kaikoura on the South Island’s east coast.

TWO people reported dead, already...
And warnings of aftershocks possible over the next couple of days..

The 2011 earthquake that killed over 180 people and virtually destroyed Christchurch's CBD was weaker (at 6.2,  vs. 7.8 on Sunday..) --  the damage from this much stronger quake is much less >>> probably because this time 'round, the epicentre was further away, and deeper down (?).

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-13/new-zealand-earthquake-hits-near-christchurch-generating-tsunami/8021922

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-14/nz-earthquake-how-do-bigger-earthquakes-cause-less-damage/8022838

Poor cows stranded after landslides cut away their access:

Cowabunga, how will they get them down?

devastating

They said they were going to rescue them. I guess, by a helicopter and sling ro some such arrangement.

.
       REPORTEDLY,  the farmer himself rescued those cattle, along with another 14 nearby, a few hours ago...

Using a pick and shovel to dig a way out for them (a ramp ?),  while at the time any helicopters were probably still looking for/removing stranded people..

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/15/uphill-cattle-stranded-cows-rescued-after-new-zealand-earthquake

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/nz-earthquake/86460020/whats-happened-to-the-cows-stranded-on-a-quake-island

Someone who did shame himself, was the the boss of the NZ SPCA,  who was talking of 'euthanising', and even claimed that their own rescue team might be the only solution --  and meanwhile, apparently, the farmers just get on with it,  and fix the problem themselves.