I was recording at St Peter's on Willis, Wellington, New Zealand last night - a 2CD set of organ works by John Keeble (stunning music if you don't know it, and sadly very little has been recorded to date).

Half way through our final session a sizeable earthquake struck (7.0 on the richter scale, 230km deep, and roughly 160km north-west of where we were). The tape continued rolling (and the organist continued playing for a while - she thought it was just going to be a gentle tremor for a while). I moved very quickly away from my desk to hide in the door frame...!

This was in a wooden church - no damage here, and no reported damage elsewhere yet. Wooden buildings tend to move and bend with a quake, and that is what you are hearing - though the sub 50hz response is quite interesting as well!

The artist has allowed me to post this here - and it may even make it on to the finished disc. Particularly relevant given all that has happened in Christchurch.

Have a listen, but be warned that it is terrifying listening!

This is brilliant. My speakers almost fall of the cabinet :-)

I hope this makes to the final CD.

Fascinating. Thank you for sharing.

I've heard of "bringing the house down, but...."

I've always wanted to be rolling with great mics open during a quake. I live close to San Francisco, but always seem to be in me car when they hit around here...

Good one! Is there more bass on the original WAV file? I was expecting a bass rush - not that it isn't frightening enough as it is in MP3! Oh wait a minute. I just played it again with my knee agains the sub below my desk and it is there fer sure! Even more powerful touching the edge of the woofer...

That reminds me a voice artist mentioned my six foot tall rack needs to be bolted to the wall. Gotta get on that!

Lou

Wow! I got cold chills listening via headphones. Thanks for sharing...

Fascinating
I was in a major quake in Mexico
We were camping in the Sierra Madre mountains
My tent was shaking vigorously,I thought my friend was doing it ,he thought the same about me.
10 seconds later we heard the spire of a local cathedral come down.

Now that's location recording.
I adore that extra atmosphere, that good location-recordings brings, I love it!


::
Mads

A great record of a terrifying event. I lived through lots of minor and one major one in the SF area. I can tell you that when the ground starts moving and the streets ripple and roll like water in rivers it is unsettling. Thanks for the reminder, I guess.

Creepy

Living, as I do, in a place that is seismically quiet, it seems incomprehensible how people stay calm during tremors. I guess locals become very pragmatic in dealing with events that occur regularly in their region.

The organist kept playing, thinking it was just a tremor. Priceless!

Paul

After going through dozens of them throughout your life, you get a better sense of which ones are just foot massages and which ones are real trouble. In SOCAL, we get alot, but they are not that bad. Kind of fun really, and they do very little damage.