Living with Earthquakes

Hi Steemit World,

So here in New Zealand we have the unfortunate reality of living with earthquakes, a strange phenomenon that people from some places like California and Japan know very well, but that people from non-quake zones might not realize.

seconds after the 2011 quake in Christchurch - image credit nzhistory.com

Why am I writing this post, well this morning we woke to a 4.1 magnitide quake which was a light shaking but got me thinking about how crazy it is living in an earthquake zone! This quake of course was just a baby compared the 7.8 magnitude quake which hit Wellington in November, 2016 and killed 2 people. This however is dwarfed by the 6.3 magnitude quake which killed 185 in Christchurch in February, 2011.

Why are the numbers so different?
Glad you asked. There are so many factors to consider in an earthquake these are the key ones.

There are two kinds (well actually four but these are the most common) of earthquakes

• tectonic quakes - these are the super destructive quakes which we all know and see in the news. They are the result of massive plates of rock shifting under the earth's surface
• volcanic quakes - these are the result of the rumblings inside a volcano, they are often not very destructive, but watch out for the volcano!

Depth and location
This is a big factor for the destructive nature of quakes. How close to the surface did they strike and how close to a populated area.

Buildings
The actual quality of the building you live in is a big factor. After the recent quakes here in New Zealand we have started a process of making our building more earthquake ready. Many people died as a direct result of bad construction. In 2005 an earthquake struck Pakistan, in a region where building construction wasn't very good. The result 86,000 dead. Holy cow!

Tsunamis
Earthquake over and still alive, nice! Live by the coast? Get the fuck out! While earthquakes are severly destructive the potenital for tsunami waves to kill has been so well documented. For example the Fukishima quake killed 16,000 but again this was dwarfed by the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 which killed up to 280,000 people!

Pschological effects
Apart from the destructive power of these events there is the very real human reaction of fear that the lovely planet which we call home sometimes wants to kill you. This can lead to a whole host of problems, only made worse of course if you lost a loved one. Many people who experience a catastrophic quake will often suffer from depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome, extreme anxiety, eating disorders, and a whole host of other problems that I think are hard to understand unless you have experienced such an event.

So to answer the question what is it like to live with earthquakes, well a bit unnerving to be honest. I live in a safe building far enough away from the see, but nature is unpredictable. Everytime the earth gives you a little shake you kind of say to yourself "ok this isn't so bad, we're ok right?" In the back of your mind though you are saying "Oh fuck, I hope this isn't going to be a big one!" Natural disasters are a reality in my country and something that you must be prepared for.