It was kinda bad. I was in uni when it happened, and 186 people died from it. It was an extremely shallow quake, but the city is built on reclaimed land (previously a swamp, don't ask why they did that) which means when a quake comes, buildings are screwed. The south island of NZ (where I live) is on the line where two tectonic plates meet, so yes earthquakes are common in NZ. However I'm 20 and last years 7.1 was the first quake I ever experienced, and i actually had no idea it was a quake. I sleep in a sleepout and that quake (this is another from the one that killed all those people, possibly the second quakes trigger) hit at 4am and I ran outside coz I thought my room was coming down on me, but still had no idea what was going on.
If the ground shakes from the aftershocks, the people here don't even bother acknowledging it, its so common. In total, there have been more than 5,000 aftershocks since the original 7.1 in September 2010. But the aftershocks are slowly dying down. Only when a quake is 5 and there's some decent shake, then you think: do I need to take cover? At first whenever something shook the building, say a heavy car or strong wind or whatever, your heart goes. Because that quake that killed people started with a loud noise, then violent shaking. So if you hear that rumbling, you're wondering if we're going again. Since there were 2 major quakes 5 months apart, people are going to think another is going to come. After the first one it was a bit exciting, no one died, and we thought that was it. But no, another came, buildings crumbled and people died.
Still though, nothing compared to japan's disaster. But what is really interesting is the peak ground acceleration of Japan's 9.0 quake was 2.7g, while our quake was 2.2g. Ours was extremely shallow. Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_ground_acceleration#Notable_earthquakes (our quake is the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, also on the list is the 2010 Canterbury earthquake which is the 7.1 I've been talking about)
And thanks, i was originally planning to study and work on the site when I could, but I'm just going to wait till i finish my exams. :)
Sorry for typing so much :pinch: I know you'll read it, but most members can't be bothered to read that much :P
Here's a video of just moments after the quake, yeah, that was a shit day. My parents and my older brother were all here when it happened. I thought they were dead, and got a little depressed until my brother came to get me, when then went to look for our dad, but he wasn't there, so we drive home and found our parents. Phew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfcWraeZvcw