Michael Batson

Wellington is one of the most earthquake-prone cities in one of the world’s most earthquake ridden countries, New Zealand. The city sits along a series of major fault lines where every day thousands of people live and work. On average, there is an earthquake every 30 seconds, most of them too small for people to detect. The “big one” locals tell you, is long overdue and could happen “any day”.New Zealand is scarred by geological forces. It sits on a geological fault line circling the Pacific Ocean, the so-called Ring of Fire. About 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes occur here and four out of every five of the world’s most powerful. The country’s Southern Alps, rising to almost 4,000 m at their highest point, mark the dividing line between the great Pacific Plate to the southeast pushing westward colliding with the northward-moving Indo-Australian Plate to the northwest. Today they keep rising higher due to tectonic pressure.Earthquakes are a regular feature of life in the Wellington. Its inhabitants are probably the most aware of this potential deadly natural phenomenon in the country. Locals tend to be nonplussed by the power of earthquakes.On Friday morning, 19 July 2013, the city was struck by the first of three big earthquakes all centred between 10km and 20km below the sea floor in nearby Cook Strait. Two more struck on Sunday. These were followed by hundreds of aftershocks felt up and down the country and out at sea.Wellington’s buildings are in the