TUESDAY’S EARTHQUAKE IN New Zealand is connected to last year’s September 4 quake in Darfield, Canterbury, a seismologist from GeoScience Australia has confirmed.

The massive earthquake shook the South Island city of Christchurch at 12:51 pm local time and measured 6.3 on the Richter scale. Its epicentre was 10km south east of Christchurch, near the town of Lyttleton at a depth of just 5km. While 75 fatalities have been confirmed, authorities are expecting many more.

Whilst yesterday’s quake is “certainly related” to the quake of six months ago, earthquake seismologist Trevor Allen told Australian Geographic, “it’s too early to tell if it’s the same faultline – it might be a continuation of the same (faultline) structure or a nearby, adjacent structure.”

Read the rest of my piece in Australian Geographic here.