View Full Version : New Zeland earthquake twists railroad track. (Crazy pics)
An earthquake in New Zealand has left railway tracks twisted like spaghetti.
Photographers insist this image of a two mile stretch of track, near Christchurch, has not been digitally manipulated.
American Geophysical Union blogger, Dave Petley explained the damage to the line, which links Canterbury with the west coast of the South Island, following the 7.1 magnitude quake.
He said: "The compression on the very strong railway line was accommodated when a weak point was found, leading to a comparatively rapid deformation to form the main buckle on the left.
"This then concentrated stress on both sides of the buckle, allowing the other bends to form."
Repairs involved removing the crippled rails and replacing them with new rails about two metres shorter than the originals.
source: http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Earthquake_twists_railway_tracks
http://www.vagabondish.com/wp-content/uploads/new-zealand-earthquake-twisted-railroad-tracks-800x600.jpg
http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/files/2010/11/10_10-Canterbury-1.jpg
Benny
11-25-2010, 08:29 PM
Bet that train conductor shit himself when he saw that coming up haha :eek:
JAYMEZ
11-25-2010, 08:32 PM
Lol weird
Jay911
11-26-2010, 07:22 AM
Saw that kind of thing in a National Geographic in the late 70s/early 80s.
My first thought is "100 chicane right entry" :D
Tomaz
11-26-2010, 09:58 AM
Holy tits! Didn't expect that to happen.
Jay911
11-26-2010, 10:18 AM
LOL at one of the comments on the news article: "We have this kind of traffic calming in my neighborhood too"
spikerS
11-26-2010, 11:09 AM
those photos look chopped to me. Notice the blurring in the picture of the rocks around the sharp corners of the rails? why has the gravel not shifted out as well on both sides? look at the flattened grass beside the rails, why did that not shift as well. I really doubt those rails could bend that much without snapping. The barb wire fences don't appear to be affected...
I just don't believe this one.
Originally posted by Jay911
My first thought is "100 chicane right entry" :D
http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad193/kellygibbonsemail/motivatorfad10f06ac8eafffc6d9eb86638c4139f5e2ab78.jpg
tirebob
11-26-2010, 11:24 AM
I call fake photo...
if bthe tracks themselves moved that much, the ground around the tracks would have also moved more. The trails beside the tracks where the equipment is hasn't moved at all...
roopi
11-26-2010, 11:28 AM
Originally posted by tirebob
I call fake photo...
if bthe tracks themselves moved that much, the ground around the tracks would have also moved more. The trails beside the tracks where the equipment is hasn't moved at all...
The gravel moved each spot where the tracks are moved out.
Twin_Cam_Turbo
11-26-2010, 11:30 AM
:eek: don't know if I believe it though.
Nice. The telephone pole has a shadow that just....stops, then a big gap, then it continues again on the other side of the tracks. :facepalm:
tirebob
11-26-2010, 01:04 PM
Originally posted by roopi
The gravel moved each spot where the tracks are moved out.
That's what I mean... The gravel looks moved, but the land around the gravel didn't... If the ground twisted enough to do that, it's not just gonna shift around the gravel but leave the ground alone...
?????
11-26-2010, 01:43 PM
Originally posted by Mar
Nice. The telephone pole has a shadow that just....stops, then a big gap, then it continues again on the other side of the tracks. :facepalm:
Where is this shadow?
Originally posted by tirebob
That's what I mean... The gravel looks moved, but the land around the gravel didn't... If the ground twisted enough to do that, it's not just gonna shift around the gravel but leave the ground alone...
The ground didn't twist. Its compression on the rails (could have been 100kms away) that finally found a weak spot which buckled.
Originally posted by tirebob
That's what I mean... The gravel looks moved, but the land around the gravel didn't... If the ground twisted enough to do that, it's not just gonna shift around the gravel but leave the ground alone...
The track twisted due to compression not shaking. All the track shadows seem to line up.
bituerbo
11-26-2010, 02:04 PM
I can tell because some of the pixels.
tirebob
11-26-2010, 04:29 PM
Originally posted by kvg
The track twisted due to compression not shaking. All the track shadows seem to line up.
If the ground compressed there, it would have risen up... It wouldn't just stay flat and curvey. Dirt has to go somewhere. It not like only the bare surface would be affected... The surrounding area would be dramatically affected by something that could cause that...
5t3v3
11-26-2010, 04:53 PM
So many people talking out of their asses in this thread calling this fake.
Anyways, here's an Australian news site with a picture of the same thing shot from above. Like kvg said above, the probable cause is that the track was compressed from both sides so that the railway twisted at the weak point.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/emotional-aftershocks-in-quakeshattered-city-20100904-14v65.html
http://images.smh.com.au/2010/09/04/1906805/Christchurch%20train-200x0.jpg
roopi
11-26-2010, 04:59 PM
Didn't anyone click the link and look at these pictures? It doesn't seem that uncommon. There are many other pictures out there via Google.
http://www.ga.gov.au/image_cache/GA9939.jpg
http://www.smate.wwu.edu/teched/geology/GeoHaz/eq-transp/eq-transp-13.JPG
http://www.smate.wwu.edu/teched/geology/GeoHaz/eq-transp/eq-transp-10.JPG
http://www.smate.wwu.edu/teched/geology/GeoHaz/eq-transp/eq-transp-05.JPG
Seth1968
11-26-2010, 05:23 PM
So the tracks somehow grew to accommodate the curves:dunno:
Jay911
11-26-2010, 05:29 PM
Physics > you. They don't have to grow, lengthen, turn soft, or anything similar in order to bend.
takkyu
11-27-2010, 12:53 AM
Sure are a lot of uneducated children on these here boards.
syritis
11-27-2010, 06:07 AM
the ground compresses a distance away
the rails slide through the railway ties.
then buckle at a weak point, I would assume it would be more common to buckle at a corner but if none are close enough i absolutely believe this could happen under ideal conditions
so to put it simple the ALL of the track between the buckle zone and the earthquake zone have moved, you don't see that though because the straight tracks moved in a straight line and end up looking like straight tracks.
I do see the broken shadow of the telephone pole, but it looks to my like the shadow is in the hole left from where that railway tire was. this is called topography, watch the lunar landing episode on mythbusters.
Seth1968
11-27-2010, 05:20 PM
Originally posted by Jay911
Physics > you. They don't have to grow, lengthen, turn soft, or anything similar in order to bend.
You>Everyone else on this forum who asks a legitimate question and gets labeled as a retard.
I'm an advanced computer tech, so when you ask a computer question, it's going to be Retard>You.
The Op's picture doesn't show any stretching of the medium, nor surrounding damage. As such, the only relevant explanation of the OP's photo is that it's a fake, or the photo doesn't show major separation of the line before or after.
Jay911
11-27-2010, 05:29 PM
Okay, if you say so.
The OP's picture also doesn't show the tectonic plates that shifted to cause the earthquake. Does that mean the quake never happened?
Seth1968
11-27-2010, 05:59 PM
Originally posted by Jay911
Okay, if you say so.
The OP's picture also doesn't show the tectonic plates that shifted to cause the earthquake. Does that mean the quake never happened?
FFS.
Ever heard of trying to prove a negative?
Now explain how the OP's picture rails have no sign of stretching , but have somehow increased in length.
In other words, it's a fake, or there is major rail separation that doesn't show in the photo.
ryder_23
11-27-2010, 06:20 PM
Originally posted by Seth1968
FFS.
Ever heard of trying to prove a negative?
Now explain how the OP's picture rails have no sign of stretching , but have somehow increased in length.
In other words, it's a fake, or there is major rail separation that doesn't show in the photo.
Why would he make a fake photo, and the news paper put a picture from the air, of the same track, which is real? Or is the Sydney Morning Herald a cheesy news site?
Seth1968
11-27-2010, 06:57 PM
Originally posted by ryder_23
Why would he make a fake photo, and the news paper put a picture from the air, of the same track, which is real? Or is the Sydney Morning Herald a cheesy news site?
Are you being sarcastic, or do you actually believe what the media tells you is true?
BTW- I never said the OP's photo was fake.
ryder_23
11-27-2010, 07:13 PM
Originally posted by Seth1968
Are you being sarcastic, or do you actually believe what the media tells you is true?
BTW- I never said the OP's photo was fake.
Yes I believe everything the media says is true :rolleyes: . What kind of response is that? 3 pictures, of same site, 1 in the newspaper. If its fake, then people went through a lot of work to publish this. That's all I'm saying.
Originally posted by Seth1968
As such, the only relevant explanation of the OP's photo is that it's a fake, or the photo doesn't show major separation of the line before or after.
Originally posted by Seth1968
In other words, it's a fake, or there is major rail separation that doesn't show in the photo.
I went off the one side of you saying its fake. So if you didn't say its fake, then I guess it has to be a seperation some where.
edit: used wrong word
Sugarphreak
11-27-2010, 07:20 PM
....
syritis
11-27-2010, 07:44 PM
Originally posted by Seth1968
Now explain how the OP's picture rails have no sign of stretching , but have somehow increased in length.
In other words, it's a fake, or there is major rail separation that doesn't show in the photo.
a good FFS to you. as everyone has been saying before, the rails have not stretched they have been pushed together by the earth quake that could have been miles away.
FFS! is this that hard to understand?
take a long straight piece of paper. hold one end stationary. now push in the other side. what happens? did the paper stretch? did this action change the lenth at all? it just BENT THE FUCKEN PAPER.
i thought you had to be smart to be a computer tech... :banghead:
Jay911
11-27-2010, 08:15 PM
I honestly don't know how to explain it any clearer than everyone else here has been spoon-feeding it to you. The rails in the picture were pushed together along the length of the railway (not from side to side), by the force of the earthquake. It doesn't necessarily have to have been a long distance. The rails have stayed the same length, in the area seen in the photograph. Somewhere else which the photograph does not capture, the land shifted a similar distance. It could even be 1cm of shifting per kilometer of distance, over a couple hundred kilometers.
Take a piece of rope (or a shoelace, or as another poster said, a piece of garden hose. Hold it in both your hands so that a straight section of it runs from one finger and thumb to the other finger and thumb. Now move your two hands closer together. OMFG! The rope/hose/shoelace bent!! Did it increase in length? NO!! It remained the same length but the distance between your fingertips shortened. The now-"extra" length of the rope/hose/shoelace (or railway track!!) has to go somewhere, so the rail bends.
If you don't get it after this explanation, there's no hope and you should go back to arguing whether or not you can get out of a speeding ticket or whatever is your normal pastime.
syritis
11-27-2010, 08:41 PM
Originally posted by ryder_23
then I guess it has to be a seperation some where.
yes, near the epicenter of the earthquake there will be a separation in the tracks (a gap) equal to the distance the tracks have been compressed in the pictures.
Sugarphreak
11-27-2010, 08:45 PM
...
Seth1968
11-28-2010, 12:24 PM
Originally posted by syritis
yes, near the epicenter of the earthquake there will be a separation in the tracks (a gap) equal to the distance the tracks have been compressed in the pictures.
ya.... I was the first one to point that out in this thread.
kaput
11-28-2010, 01:03 PM
.
syritis
11-28-2010, 03:14 PM
Originally posted by Seth1968
ya.... I was the first one to point that out in this thread.
over shadowed by you saying steel rails stretch.
Seth1968
11-28-2010, 04:01 PM
Originally posted by syritis
over shadowed by you saying steel rails stretch.
WTF?
I never said that.
Jay911
11-28-2010, 04:19 PM
Originally posted by Seth1968
WTF?
I never said that.
Hmm...
Originally posted by Seth1968
So the tracks somehow grew to accommodate the curves:dunno:
The reason nobody said anything about it before you did is that none of us thought it had to be explained as intricately as it did to you.
syritis
11-28-2010, 07:10 PM
Originally posted by Seth1968
Now explain how the OP's picture rails have no sign of stretching , but have somehow increased in length.
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