Should I worry about earthquakes in New Zealand?

Question

Planning to immigrate but terrified of the BIG earthquakes (8 +)
Am I overreacting?

Answer 1

Last year in Geography we learnt about earthquakes in NZ. My teacher was completly obbsessed with them. According to her, NZ is overdue a major earthquake of 150years or so. I don't worry about it although i don't live on the fault line. My best friend does (he lives in Wellington) and he always tells me when theres been earthquakes he can feel (which isn't very often).

Check out this website- http://www.geonet.org.nz it'll tell you the latest earthhquakes in NZ. If you go to the Seismic drums that'll show you all the plate movement in the last 24hours in each area.

We all have to be a bit careful and be prepared for natural disasters.

http://www.govt.nz/record?tid=1&treeid=804&recordid=28469 That's the NZ Government website for how to prepare for an earthquake in NZ.

Our buildings are now earthquake proof. Espically buildings in Wellington. They have squishy bits under them which absorbs the quake.

4 million people live in NZ. If it wasn't safe we wouldn't live here.

Answer 2

You shouldn't worry too much about earthquakes as a reason not to immigrate - the actual danger is quite low.

If you want to move to an area where you'd be less likely to experience even small earthquakes, you could try the southeast coast of the south island (near Dunedin, for example), where few quakes (even small ones) are recorded.

All in all, though, it's a fabulous place to be, and you shouldn't let a remote possibility of an earthquake keep you away!

Answer 3

You shouldn't "Worry" about earthquakes anywhere! They occur every day but you are more likely to die in a car accident or house fire, which you should also not worry about.

Don't waste any precious time worrying about things that you can't change. Have you ever been in an earthquake? It can be a real adventure. If you have enough supplies stored away to keep you comfortable for a few days you could find yourself making some amazing memories after an earthquake.

Answer 4

Everyone plans to move everywhere, so what's the big deal about earthquakes? Besides Japan, Chinese Taipei (aka Taiwan), Turkey, Mexico City and California, I don't find elsewhere which are famed for earthquakes.

Answer 5

I live in a rural area in the south of NZ. In 2004 we had a 7.6 quake centred about 500 km away and I slept through it. The only place where I'd worry about quakes is downtown Wellington, where you've got high rise buildings. I wouldn't like to be in Lambton Quay with plate glass showering down on me. But even there, there'd be far fewer fatalities than you get in China or Turkey; our building code is much stricter. The most deadly quake in our history was in 1931. 256 deaths were caused in the city of Napier. During the 2004 quake, a friend of mine was driving a locomotive through a tunnel, and he didn't notice it. So don't worry too much. In the last 100 years we've had fewer than 300 earthquake deaths but thousands of road deaths, thousands of drownings, thousands of homicides, thousands of suicides and hundreds of plane crash deaths.

Answer 6

You might be a little bit over-reacting. Australian and New Zealand have thousands of small quakes recorded every year by the U.S. Geological Society, but most of those are too samll to feel; in effect they are 'microquakes'.
There have been some moderate quakes there in the 4-5 Richter range.
All in all, if you live there, you are as safe as you would be in California. (we are all wondering when the 'big one' will hit!) here in L.A.

Answer 7

It might be. In this case, all of residents in NZ has to move out to evacuate. Do not worry about it and go immigrate now!

Answer 8

earthquakes are possible any where