Just can't stop shaking!

Today started out just like every other Tuesday; a reluctant walk to statistic class, a mind numbing lecture in a hall full of 400 students.. Then, half way through the class, the building felt like it had been hit by a truck. The lecturer grabbed the podium in front of her, the entire class gasped,  two girls screamed, and I felt like I could see the building shudder in front of my eyes.  A worried glance up proved to be a bad idea, as I mistakenly had sat under one of the hanging lights- which was now swaying back and forth in the most alarming way. 

It left as suddenly as it came. Leaving the hanging projection screens swinging, and everyone's hearts beating a little faster. The lecturer resumed speaking, and we all went back to our slumped note-taking.  

Just another earthquake, just another day in Christchurch. 

Well, at 5.0, centered just 10 km outside of ChCh, and 9 km deep, it was a bit stronger then the little baby ones we've all grown used too. But it didn't slow anything down. A couple classes were evacuated because of falling ceiling tiles, and a friend of mine has more cracks in his wall. But the majority of people went on with what they were doing. Is it a bad thing to be so desensitized to earthquakes? We've only had 2022 quakes since that ill-fated September 4th, when the 7.1 hit. We have definitely slowed down the number of quakes we get a day, but they still happen. A walk down the road, or a ride in to city center shows buildings demolished, with gaping holes, covered in boards, and supports just in case the quakes cause more damage. 

Here's a couple of websites we use to keep track of the beasty quakes. The first one, Geonet, is the main one most people use. They update about 20 minutes after a quake hits. The second one is just for fun, and has pretty colored bubbles.

 http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/recent_quakes.html

http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/