Kia Kaha. Nothing broken here, few things fell over, TV (and by extension the Cricket) survived without a blip. 

I have to apologise, everytime there's a big quake in Chch I'm in my PJ's watching TV. MY bad guys.

Yup - that's what a real quake feels like - I'd almost forgotten.
Or 5 kilo tonnes TNT letting rip 7km from where I'm sitting.

Quick walk around the house - no damage.  A couple of things fell off shelves.

ETA a lot of sirens going around here - not sure if it's related to quake.

Hope this doesn't "re-energise" the system too much - life with only occasional aftershocks was seeming to be normal again.

I have friends in New Brighton (~km east of CHCH, quake was ~15km east of CHCH) who are saying it buggered up all the roads again. oO

EDIT: GZ doesn't like my chosen vocabulary

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11589469

Some photos of dust over CHCH from cliff falls

CruciasNZ:
Some photos of dust over CHCH from cliff falls

 

That doesn't look good - probably explains the sirens I'm hearing - on road to Sumner.

That was a doozy, biggest in a long time. Another section of whitewash head came down, big dust clouds.

https://twitter.com/SumnerBoy/status/698665394224001024

I am in the middle of Sumner and we had a few things fall off shelves but nothing broken (as far I can see).

Geonet has downgraded it to M5.7.

Small aftershock just as I'm typing this.

 Really big rolling thunder type quake that one. Few things fell of shelves nothing to bad though. Lots of alarms going off. Bought back some bad memories, hope everybody else around town is ok. No liquefaction here which i am really happy with.

Where I am the house gave the feeling that it was going around in circles - it was interesting because it went on longer than the usual jolts, but other than minor things falling of shelves, all seems to be ok.

I guess I better check the quake kit just in case.

This is what my security cam caught , was enough to move the camera around.

Here's spectral acceleration strong-motion data comparison for the quake today with Feb 22 2011, from GNS:

Note that "period" is shaking frequency - not duration of shaking.

About 0.2g. Was offshore a bit - fortunately.  The plot on the chart above for the Feb 22 quake, the epicentre was close enough to being right under the strong motion detector (and my house - darn it).

I think I am one of the few left with a "Quake Detector" still feeding the Quake Catcher Network at Caltech University.

(Caltech took over from Stanford)

The QCN Project has run out of funding, so is in the process of a slow death.

I purchased my own sensors over 5 years ago and they are fixed under the house to the foundation.

1 to feed for Caltech, 1 for me to view.

5 years ago there were over 200 people participating here in Christchurch.

(Most were part of a Geonet initiative)

We can tell by the X/Y/Z where the quake came from:

Lots of Z (up/down) = New Brighton

Lots of X/Y = Rolleston

I was only just reading about this today which is interesting.

http://www.engadget.com/2016/02/12/earthquake-detecting-android-app/

5.7 -- doesn't sound that big but everyone is saying it was really big.

I guess quakes of similar reported strengths can have different effects at the ground level -- depending on depth and underlying geology. 

The immediate questions will be around that school they were trying to close underneath some cliffs near sumner... and , in general, buildings on and below the cliff. Look pretty dangerous to my untrained eye. 

surfisup1000:

 

5.7 -- doesn't sound that big but everyone is saying it was really big.

 

I guess quakes of similar reported strengths can have different effects at the ground level -- depending on depth and underlying geology. 

 

The immediate questions will be around that school they were trying to close underneath some cliffs near sumner... and , in general, buildings on and below the cliff. Look pretty dangerous to my untrained eye. 

 

The school (Redcliffs) is well forward of the cliffs.  The Feb 2011 ground shaking intensity was 5-10x stronger than the shake today - yet here was no rockfall in the school grounds.

The school is being closed for reasons other than EQ risk - that's just an excuse.  The same government closing down the school will have no problems allowing the land to be sold for housing development etc.

Problem is threshold of risk. If you were an engineer who had to sign off to say that in your opinion there was no risk, you'd likely hesitate, in the same way that you might be reluctant to say that central Auckland won't be blown sky high by a volcano.

Fred99:

 

surfisup1000:

 

5.7 -- doesn't sound that big but everyone is saying it was really big.

 

I guess quakes of similar reported strengths can have different effects at the ground level -- depending on depth and underlying geology. 

 

The immediate questions will be around that school they were trying to close underneath some cliffs near sumner... and , in general, buildings on and below the cliff. Look pretty dangerous to my untrained eye. 

 

 

 

 

The school (Redcliffs) is well forward of the cliffs.  The Feb 2011 ground shaking intensity was 5-10x stronger than the shake today - yet here was no rockfall in the school grounds.

 

The school is being closed for reasons other than EQ risk - that's just an excuse.  The same government closing down the school will have no problems allowing the land to be sold for housing development etc.

 

Problem is threshold of risk. If you were an engineer who had to sign off to say that in your opinion there was no risk, you'd likely hesitate, in the same way that you might be reluctant to say that central Auckland won't be blown sky high by a volcano.

 

Been a few more minor shocks too.

Bit of a shake just now.