[Novalug] Mark Smith, are you ok?

Mark Smith mark@winksmith.com
Tue Feb 22 15:11:59 EST 2011


thanks for your concern.  everyone in my family is okay.  i found out
about the earthquake, the same way you guys did, by hearing about it on
the news.  i'm very far away on a different island separate by a huge
channel of water and the mass of most of the largest island in the NZ
island nation and the mass of the second largest island for that matter.
hamilton, where we live, is landlocked and is quite stable geologically
speaking.  there have been two earth quakes here since i've moved here,
but i didn't feel either of them.

the canterbury region is a beautiful place with abundant natural resources
and a recently bourgening technology center.  the area was recently
shook a few months ago really hard by a larger earthquake as measured
on the richter scale.  this recent one was accepted as being much worse
because it's focal depth was only 5km (for reference many are 50km deep
and some quite a bit deeper; the deepest mine in the world is only 3.8km)
and the fact that people were still cleaning up from the last one with
many building already in a weakened state.

many have lost their homes, a few have been seriously injured, and
some have lost their lives; the PM last night indicated 65, but that
is universally accepted to rise, possibly quite a bit higher, as people
dead and alive are dug out of fallen building.  as you might expect it's
a really big deal here, not unlike seeing pictures of dead americans
floating in the water after katrina.

interestingly, one of the six supervolcanoes in the world is actually lake
taupo a few hours south of me.  another one is yellowstone national park.
if either blow everyone on the planet will know about it first hand.

-- 
Mark Smith
mark@winksmith.com
mark@tux.org



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