WEBVTT

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A couple of things that we need to bear in mind when we talk about an earthquake like this:

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if the terrain were rocky like in Chile, the shaking is not that intense.

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But when the terrain is sandy, and that's the case of Christchurch, you know, the ground shakes violently because it is softer.

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It's like Haiti.

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And in this case, you know, you say,

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"6.3 and all this damage? What's going on?"

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Well, we need to take into account depth, and it's only five kilometers deep.

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We're talking about the 6.3.

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So this graphic illustrates what happens when the earthquake is shallow like the one in New Zealand today.

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Then we see the shaking more severely on the ground.

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That's why the 6.3 doesn't seem to be that intense, but when we take into account the depth, it has been.

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And also, and this is perhaps more importantly,

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is that New Zealand is right in between the Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate,

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so that's when the ground shakes to accommodate.

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So when we have an earthquake, there's movement of these plates.

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And now we may see aftershocks for months until things go back to sort of settling down again.

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So don't be panicking in case [if] you feel some more shaking on the ground; [it] should be lower than what we have seen so far.

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And finally, the 7.1 on the fourth of September was inside,

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not on a sandy foundation -- [a] more rocky area.

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That's why the shaking wasn't that violent.

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So we need to entertain all these aspects.

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And remember there are going to be more aftershocks for months now

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until everything goes back to its normal position.