New Zealand Earthquake Spurs Social Media Response

Following the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand on Tuesday, Google launched an online tool, Person Finder, to aid in the rescue efforts. The database can be used by rescuers and others to find information about people in the earthquake zone.

There’s also a new Twitter account, @safeinchch (or Safe in Christchurch) for info-sharing and a number of hashtags, including #eqnz, #nzeq, #christchurch.

Khou.com out of Houston also notes that Facebook – both individual pages and pages created after the earthquake, such as “New