New Zealand lies in the earthquake-prone Pacific Rim zone and has two active faults: the Wellington–Mōhaka Fault on the North Island and the Alpine Fault on the South Island. According to Te Ara, the online encyclopedia about New Zealand, the Alpine fault "extends 650 km from Blenheim to Milford Sound". The fault follows the Southern Alps line (just follow the white line that is formed by the snow-capped mountains on the satellite photo above ) with the West Coast lying on The Australian plate and the Eastern Coast on the Pacific Plate.
It looks like Christchurch lies about 200km from the fault. Whilst no major earthquakes have happened for a while, New Zealand is a high risk zone and it is paramount to be prepared for any eventuality. Back in Belgium my husband woke up once in the middle of a night as he had felt the ground moving. I myself have never experienced one. The kids have never experienced one either so, taking advantage of the fact that they are still on holidays, my husband explained them what earthquakes and tsunamis are and what to do if they happen at home or at school.
For that he used the informative Earthquake Commission website. As its name suggests, New Zealand disposes of an institution that deals with natural disasters. The website simulates different Richter scales earthquakes and shows very well how the ground starts shaking and how furniture may start falling, etc.
When I came back home in the evening and asked about the stint session, the kids showed to me what they should do. Well done. However my younger son was quite afraid and could not sleep well. We tried to reassure him that he should not be afraid because he knew what he had to do in case an earthquake happened but it did not help much. This morning, however, he told me that during the night there was a light earthquake and he was not afraid of that. Fruitful imagination? Hmmmm. Well, if you take into account that thousands of - imperceptible - quakes below the MM 3 scale occur in New Zealand per year, that seems quite plausible and not that far fetched...
Photo credit: http://feww.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/alpine-fault.jpg
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