MM> Meanwhile, a huge eathquake between NZ's Invercargill and Aussie's
 MM> Tasmania of 8.1 Richters 3 or 4 days before Boxing Day shook the
 MM> lower bits of NZ,  and would have wreaked the same sort of
 MM> devastation on these two countries if it had not been buried
 MM> hundreds of kms beneath the Tasman Sea.  This one-day wonder soon
 MM> disappeared entirely behind the re-runs in our holiday media.

My website has links to the PNSN real-time on-line newtork.  I saw
low frequency "ringing" on a seismometer in Forks, Washington, on
the Olypmic Peninsula, for several hours afterward.

 MM> Auckland is, of course, absolutely impervious !  Perched as we are
 MM> on 350 volcanic cones (the youngest is only 800yrs old) stretched
 MM> thinly between the Tasman Sea and the Pacific,  our residents
 MM> prefer the coastal locations for housing and recreation.  A master
 MM> plan or policy for evacuation has not been published  ...  but the
 MM> views from the city, over the iconic volcano Rangitoto and up the
 MM> Gulf to the broad Pacific  are lullingly beautiful....

You're sitting right on a plate boundary just like Iceland!  It
has split and divided one of your mountains, on North Island
IIRC.  A subduction zone earthquake is in the cards for you.
There was one here in the PNW from the Juan de Fuca Plate
subduction zone 300 years ago, recorded in Japanese annals.

 MM> It was therefore very pleasing to hear that Nigeria cleared its
 MM> coastline successfully,  and to learn that French coastal defences
 MM> built 300 years ago in southern India at Pondicherry saved
 MM> villagers completely by repelling the waves also cheered me up.

Costal greenbelts, the local mangrove swamps, did or could have
helped--those that were'd bulldozed for fancy tourist hotels.

 MM> But keeping emergency packs ready to go, plus a contingency plan
 MM> for all obvious scenarios, in this Auckland household is the order
 MM> of the day right here.  The next step is to secure automatic
 MM> cellphone alerts, but I ain't holding my breath...

Learn the position!  Sitting on the ground with your knees up
and ankles close to the body--so you can kis your *** goodbye.


Paul Rogers, paulgrogers{at}yahoo.com                       -o)
http://www.angelfire.com/or/paulrogers                   /\\
Rogers' Second Law: Everything you do communicates.     _\_V

... We now return to our regularly scheduled flame-throwing.
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