Information about the strong earthquake on the South Island of New Zeeland, September 3, 2010. |
| The strong earthquake with М=7.1 has occurred on September 3, 2010 at 16:35 GMT (20:35 Moscow time) on the South Island of New Zeeland. |
| Parameters of the earthquake
have been determined in the Alert Service (AS) of Information
Processing Center (IPC) of Geophysical Survey of RAS in Obninsk with station data
obtained from digital and analog seismic stations of Russia, countries of CIS
and from abroad. Alert message on this earthquake has been delivered in 29 min after
registration to the Ministry of Emergency of the Russian Federation (EMERCOM). |
| Preliminary processing has been done with data from 25 stations, accurate processing - with data 28 stations. |
| Fig. 1 presents fragments of records obtained from digital stations Tennant Creek (∆ 39.1º), Port Moresby (∆ 40.3º), Sanae (∆ 64.9º), Kipapa (∆ 70.5º), Falkland Islands (∆ 75.8º). Fig. 2 presents fragments of records obtained from digital stations Matsushiro (∆ 85.4º), Erimo (∆ 89.1º), Yuzhno-Kurilsk (∆ 90.3º), Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (∆ 93.8º), Mys Shultsa (∆ 93.2º). |
Figure 1
| 
Figure 2
|
|
| IPC GS RAS also has obtained information with parameters of this event from some seismological centers, these data are given in table 1: |
| Table 1 |
| NN |
Time in origin h-min-s (GMT) |
Lat degr. |
Lon degr. |
Depth km |
N s/st |
Ms/ N |
mb/ N |
I0 calc |
GAP |
Center | | 1 |
16-35-44.8 |
-43.64 |
171.72 |
15 |
28 |
7.1/19 | 6.6/8 | 9.5 | 108 | IPC GS RAS (Accurate) | | 2 |
16-35-44.6 |
-43.61 |
171.68 |
15 |
25 |
7/3 | 6.6/8 | 9-9.5 | 121 | IPC GS RAS (Preliminary) | | 3 |
16-35-45.3 |
-43.29 |
172 |
5 |
320 |
7 Mw | | | 22 | CSEM | | 4 |
16-35-46.5 |
-43.53 |
172.12 |
5 |
374 |
7 Mw | 6.4/69 | | 18 | NEIC | |
| IPC GS RAS - Informational Processing Center, Geophysical Survey, Russian Academy of Sciences |
| CSEM - European - Mediterranean seismological center |
| NEIC - National Earthquakes Information Center of US Geological Service |
| Epicenter |
| Fig.3 depicts with red star epicenter of this earthquake which origin was located on the South Island of New Zeeland at the depth of 15 km, in 76 km W-S-W from Christchurch town and in 362 km N-W from Wellington. |
Figure 3 |
|
| Aftershock |
| GS RAS registered 1 aftershock with magnitude М=5.6 in 17 minutes after the main shock. |
| N |
Date & Time (GMT)
yy-mm-dd hh:mm:sec |
Lat
degr. |
Lon
degr. |
Depth
km |
N
station |
Ms/ N |
mb/ N |
Io
calc. |
Region |
| 20102931 | 2010-09-03 16:52:59.0 | -43.54 | 171.44 | 15 | 8 | - | 5.6/ 4 | 6-6.5 | South Island, New Zealand | |
| Macroseismic manifestations |
| In accordance with RIA-Novosti , powerful underground shocks were the reason of significant destructions in Christchurch town and power supply interruptions in the area around. There was information about raiders, who robed the shops and apartments in the town, where the state of emergency was announced. |
| Focal mechanism and seismic moment of the earthquake |
| Focal mechanism solutions for this earthquake which occurred on September 3, 2010 at 16:35 GMT were obtained with CMT technique in NEIC USA, USGS and Global CMT Catalog, USA. They are presented in table 2 and figures 4,5. All solutions are identical. The earthquake has occurred under the action of equal forces of compression and expansion, oriented N-E and S-E respectively. Both nodal planes are steeply falling (angles of declination DP=77º-87º), one of them NP1 had along the latitude direction of propagation, another NP2 plane had along the longitude direction of propagation. Type of motion along both planes is over thrust – right side for NP1 and left side for NP2.
The value of seismic moment Мо for this earthquake which occurred on September 3, 2010 in accordance with USGS makes 3.5*10**19 n*m, the value of moment magnitude Mw=7.0, in accordance with Global CMT Catalog – Мо=3.49*10**19 n*m, Mw=7.0.
|
| Table 2 |
| Axes of main strengths |
Nodal planes |
Center |
| T |
P |
N |
NP1 |
NP2 |
| Pl |
Azm |
Pl |
Azm |
Pl |
Azm |
Stk |
Dp |
Slip |
Stk |
Dp |
Slip |
| 6 | 42 | 11 | 133 |
76 | 283 | 268 | 87 | -166 | 178 |
77 | -3 | NEIC | | 8 | 43 | 4 | 134 |
81 | 251 | 88 | 87 | 172 | 179 |
82 | 3 | Quick CMT | |
| NEIC - National Earthquakes Information Center of US Geological Service |
| Quick CMT - Quick CMT catalog |
Figure 4 | 
Figure 5 |
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