Thinking of Christchurch

Seeing the pictures of this morning's earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, and hearing that it was more powerful than the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, I can only think it's a miracle that no one appears to have been killed. We visited New Zealand as newlyweds and I found myself looking over the photos. Thinking of everyone affected by it...

(Yes, that is a wizard addressing the crown in the last picture!)

******

On an aside, for a long time I've wondered whether the seismic activity occuring at one place on a fault line triggers seismic stress elsewhere on at connected area (for example, around the Pacific Rim). The idea came to me when someone pointed out that two days after the 1989 San Francisco quake there was a earthquake in China that killed 20 people but was barely reported on. Teachers and lecturers always pooh-poohed this suggestion (over 10 years ago) saying that earthquakes are completely unrelated events, so I feel quite vindicated to read now that some seismologists now believe that there can be a connection. So if this is the case, we can only hope that any other activity related to the Christchurch quake occurs well away from any populations.