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12-20-2016, 12:47 PM
Hi Duffy,
While there are a lot of M7+ quakes each year (15 or 20?), there are only 1 or 2 (or is it one every 2 years?) M8 quakes in the world. I think having 3 M7.8 quakes in a region is higher than the long term occurrence rate by quite a bit. But this is statistics of small numbers (3), so it does not mean a whole lot. The New Zealand quake is not unprecedented on its size: it has a subduction zone and a transform fault; New Zealand is a plate boundary. But it breaking numerous individual faults is interesting, and the right-lateral slip is as much as 12 m, which is huge, and the vertical motions locally are quite large.
Chris
While there are a lot of M7+ quakes each year (15 or 20?), there are only 1 or 2 (or is it one every 2 years?) M8 quakes in the world. I think having 3 M7.8 quakes in a region is higher than the long term occurrence rate by quite a bit. But this is statistics of small numbers (3), so it does not mean a whole lot. The New Zealand quake is not unprecedented on its size: it has a subduction zone and a transform fault; New Zealand is a plate boundary. But it breaking numerous individual faults is interesting, and the right-lateral slip is as much as 12 m, which is huge, and the vertical motions locally are quite large.
Chris