NewsTracker Answers for week of Feb. 28, 2011

Q: A 6.3 magnitude earthquake last week killed at least 145 and left 200 missing in New Zealand's second-largest city. Where is New Zealand?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Hundreds of homes and buildings may need to be demolished and rebuilt in the city. What is the name of New Zealand's second-largest city?

A. Auckland

B. Brisbane

C. Christchurch

D. Wellington

C. Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand with nearly a million people more than either Christchurch or Wellington, the third largest city and the nation's capital. Brisbane is in Australia.

Q: The earthquake caused much more damage than a stronger 7.1 tremor last fall, and it caused more soil to lose strength and stiffness, a process called . . .

A. Liquefaction

B. Soil sheer

C. Compaction

D. Tremolo

A. Officials said liquefaction was up to 500 percent worse this time. Also, many buildings may have been weakened by last September's earthquake, which was centered farther from Christchurch and twice as deep in the earth.

Q: New Zealand is subject to earthquakes and volcanoes because it is . . .

A. Over a crust "hot spot"

B. In the Pacific Ocean

C. Very mountainous

D. On a tectonic plate edge

D. New Zealand shakes as the Pacific and Indo-Australian plates crash into each other. The country lies on the "Pacific Ring of Fire" where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur along the edges of the Pacific plate.

Q: Geographically isolated, New Zealand was one of the last major landmasses to be settled. Where did the first settlers originate?

A. Australia

B. Britain

C. Netherlands

D. Tahiti

D. The Maori are believed to have arrived in New Zealand between 1250 and 1300 AD after voyaging in canoes from Tahiti and its neighboring Polynesian islands. Europeans first saw the country in 1642 and began arriving in large numbers during the 19th century.