Happily, no deaths and surprisingly few injuries were reported. Quite a bit of damage to structures, but it appears at this time that there's nothing major. Regulations work, people (h/t Chris). And to think the developers were whining about all that horrible regulatory stuff. They may not give a shit about dead people, but they need to remember that dead people can't buy property.
(Interesting coinky-dink: today is the day Head Rush had a bit about earthquakes between Australia and New Zealand. The quake they were discussing moved the two about a foot closer to each other. This keeps up, flights between the two might get super-short in a few million years.)
Chris at Highly Allochthonous has a good piece up about the tectonics of the quake. You can find a map showing who felt the quake at Dave's Landslide Blog - looks like most of the country got shaken. Erik at Eruptions has some links for ye. And I'm sure there's a ton of stuff I'm missing, but I've been talking to me mum all night, so you'll just have to let me know in comments what I should've seen.
Some extraordinary pics below the fold (h/t Chris and Erik).
Mini fault scarp:
O' course, that could just be from something hollow (sewer or suchlike) collapsing below, but it's pretty interesting anyway. So is this one:
I'm pretty sure they didn't build the parking lot like that.
Here's a pretty dramatic crack in a road:
And another big ol' crack in the ground:
Pretty amazing stuff. The earth's powerful, and we don't control it - it's best we don't ever forget that.
Best of luck as you ride out the aftershocks and dig out, my dear New Zealanders!
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