Christchurch Quake - by Quillian

 At 12:51pm on Tuesday February 22, 2011 a magnitude 6.3 earthquake caused a lot of damage in Christchurch and Lyttelton, New Zealand, killing 185 people and injuring several thousand.  The earthquake's epicenter was near Lyttelton just a short ways away from the central town. It happened nearly 6 months after the September 4th, 2010 earthquake. The earthquake struck at lunchtime when many people were on the streets. More than 130 people lost their lives in the collapse of a television company and the Pyne Gould corporation. Although not as powerful as the earthquake on September 4, 2010 which was 7.1 magnitude, this quake happened on a shallow fault line close to the city so the shaking was particularly destructive. 

On Friday November 30, 2018 at 8:30 am two back-to-back earthquakes measuring 7.0 and 5.8 struck the Anchorage, Alaska area. The 7.0 magnitude quake was centered about 8 miles north of Anchorage on Cook Inlet. I remember this earthquake because I was in Little Bears Preschool at the time.  At first I thought it was a big garbage truck driving by until my friends mom came in and said, "We've got to go." A cubby shelf got knocked down and everything was shaking.  It was pretty crazy.  We went outside and I stood by my Dad's leg.  Then we went to the library. 

Christchurch and Anchorage both had an earthquake with around the same magnitude but Anchorage was more prepared because of the last earthquake they had in 1964. The earthquake in Christchurch was 13 years ago. When I visited Christchurch, two weeks ago, I saw tons of construction cranes and some destroyed buildings along with many  new buildings. The Anchorage earthquake was 5 years ago and a similar magnitude and you can see no damage. Because Anchorage had a different big earthquake in 1964 they were more prepared. From what I saw, Anchorage was more prepared than Christchurch. I would guess that Christchurch will build their buildings differently so they're more prepared for a future quake.