Nature’s fury: 7.8-magnitude quake shakes New Zealand

Prime Minister John Key says two persons killed

WELLINGTON: A powerful earthquake and series of aftershocks shook New Zealand early on Monday, killing at least two people and prompting a tsunami warning that sent thousands fleeing to higher ground.

Emergency response teams were dispatched by helicopter to the region at the epicentre of the 7.8-magnitude quake, some 91 km north-northeast of Christchurch in the South Island, amid reports of injuries and collapsed buildings.

Prime Minister John Key told a dawn news conference in capital Wellington, where the quake was also felt strongly, that two people had been killed. Police said one of the victims was found in a house in the coastal tourist town of Kaikoura.



“It was the most significant shock I can remember in Wellington,” Key told reporters, although he stopped short of calling a national emergency. “There will be quite major costs around roads and infrastructure.” Emergency officials were meeting later on Monday morning, added Key.

Power was out and phone lines down in many areas of the country, while roads were blocked by landslips. But a tsunami warning that led to mass evacuations was downgraded after large swells hit Wellington, in the North Island, and Christchurch, the South Island’s largest city.

The first tremor, just 23km deep, struck the Pacific island nation just after midnight, jolting many from their sleep and raising memories of the 6.3-magnitude Christchurch quake in 2011, which killed 185 people. New Zealand’s Geonet measured Monday’s quake at magnitude 7.5, while the US Geological Survey put it at 7.8.

New Zealand lies in the seismically active ‘Ring of Fire’, a 40,000km arc of volcanoes and oceanic trenches that partly encircles the Pacific Ocean. Around 90% of the world’s earthquakes occur within this region.

6.2-magnitude quake hits Argentina

A strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit northwestern Argentina on Sunday as well, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.  The quake, at a depth of 100km, struck shortly after 1400 GMT about 16 miles north of the city Chilecito in the South American nation’s La Rioja province.



The country’s seismic authority also reported three smaller earthquakes Sunday. The quake near the border with Chile follows a 6.4-magnitude earthquake of ‘great intensity’ earlier this month in central Chile.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2016.