A view of Victoria Street from Mod's Hair where the building and adjoining building have been damaged, and cordoned off with fencing and road cones. Piles of building rubble can be seen outside on the footpath and road.
The Octagon Live Restaurant (formerly Trinity Church) on Worcester Street. Steel bracing has been placed on the tower to limit further damage from aftershocks. Sculptures of a cyclist, bungee jumper, rock climber and kayaker can be seen on the bracing posts.
The wall of the Carlton Hotel has crumbled, exposing the interior of the upstair rooms. Scaffolding and steel bracing has been put up on the side, and a pile of building rubble can be seen on the footpath.
The wall of the Carlton Hotel has crumbled, exposing the interior of the upstair rooms. Scaffolding and steel bracing has been put up on the side, and a pile of building rubble can be seen on the footpath.
Damage to Metro Floor, where a section under the roof has been covered with a tarpaulin to protect it from the rain. Cordon fencing, plastic road barriers and road cones can be seen along the footpath and street.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Rubberneckers driving by or watching the Christchurch Chinese Methodist Church on Papanui Road have its spire carefully removed so that restoration work can be considered".
Rapid, reliable information on earthquake-affected structures' current damage/health conditions and predicting what would happen to these structures under future seismic events play a vital role in accelerating post-event evaluations, leading to optimized on-time decisions. Such rapid and informative post-event evaluations are crucial for earthquake-prone areas, where each earthquake can potentially trigger a series of significant aftershocks, endangering the community's health and wealth by further damaging the already-affected structures. Such reliable post-earthquake evaluations can provide information to decide whether an affected structure is safe to stay in operation, thus saving many lives. Furthermore, they can lead to more optimal recovery plans, thus saving costs and time. The inherent deficiency of visual-based post-earthquake evaluations and the importance of structural health monitoring (SHM) methods and SHM instrumentation have been highlighted within this thesis, using two earthquake-affected structures in New Zealand: 1) the Canterbury Television (CTV) building, Christchurch; 2) the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) building, Wellington. For the first time, this thesis verifies the theoretically- and experimentally validated hysteresis loop analysis (HLA) SHM method for the real-world instrumented structure of the BNZ building, which was damaged severely due to three earthquakes. Results indicate the HLA-SHM method can accurately estimate elastic stiffness degradation for this reinforced concrete (RC) pinched structure across the three earthquakes, which remained unseen until after the third seismic event. Furthermore, the HLA results help investigate the pinching effects on the BNZ building's seismic response. This thesis introduces a novel digital clone modelling method based on the robust and accurate SHM results delivered by the HLA method for physical parameters of the monitored structure and basis functions predicting the changes of these physical parameters due to future earthquake excitations. Contrary to artificial intelligence (AI) based predictive methods with black-box designs, the proposed predictive method is entirely mechanics-based with an explicitly-understandable design, making them more trusted and explicable to stakeholders engaging in post-earthquake evaluations, such as building owners and insurance firms. The proposed digital clone modelling framework is validated using the BNZ building and an experimental RC test structure damaged severely due to three successive shake-table excitations. In both structures, structural damage intensifies the pinching effects in hysteresis responses. Results show the basis functions identified from the HLA-SHM results for both structures under Event 1 can online estimate structural damage due to subsequent Events 2-3 from the measured structural responses, making them valuable tool for rapid warning systems. Moreover, the digital twins derived for these two structures under Event 1 can successfully predict structural responses and damage under Events 2-3, which can be integrated with the incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method to assess structural collapse and its financial risks. Furthermore, it enables multi-step IDA to evaluate earthquake series' impacts on structures. Overall, this thesis develops an efficient method for providing reliable information on earthquake-affected structures' current and future status during or immediately after an earthquake, considerably guaranteeing safety. Significant validation is implemented against both experimental and real data of RC structures, which thus clearly indicate the accurate predictive performance of this HLA-based method.
The cartoon shows a room full of dying electronic gadgets like television, sound systems, a digital phone, a computer etc. and a wood burning stove, a candle, an analogue phone and a barbecue that are old technology and so very useful after the Christchurch earthquake of 22 February 2011. The barbecue says 'How can we retire? These youngsters can't cut it!' Published in The Press Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
It could be up to 18 months before 660 Christchurch homeowners know who will pay for earthquake damage repairs with a $1 billion price tag. The bill to fix houses in Christchurch that weren't repaired properly the first time round, or have suffered more damage in aftershocks, is climbing - and the government can't say who's liable. The problem is the homes have new owners who can't claim on theri insurance because the damage pre-dates them owning the home. Earlier Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods told us the previous National government put no plan in place, and the current government is being left to pick up the pieces. Former Christchurch earthquake recovery minister Gerry Brownlee disputes the issue.
ACT leader Rodney Hide stands alone in the middle of a blasted plain that was once the 'Christchurch CBD' and says 'A level playing field, excellent. Now we can leave the rest to the market'. Context - Christchurch after the earthquakes of 4 September 2010 and 22 February 2011. ACT explicitly promotes a free market philosophy - a (literal) level playing field in the Christchurch CBD sounds like an excellent opportunity to test the powers of the free market. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
During the recent devastating earthquakes in Christchurch, many residential houses were damaged due to widespread liquefaction of the ground. In-situ testing is widely used as a convenient method for evaluating liquefaction potential of soils. Cone penetration test (CPT) and standard penetration test (SPT) are the two popular in situ tests which are widely used in New Zealand for site characterization. The Screw Driving Sounding (SDS) method is a relatively new operating system developed in Japan consisting of a machine that drills a rod into the ground by applying torque at seven steps of axial loading. This machine can continuously measure the required torque, load, speed of penetration and rod friction during the test, and therefore can give a clear overview of the soil profile along the depth of penetration. In this paper, based on a number of SDS tests conducted in Christchurch, a correlation was developed between tip resistance of CPT test and SDS parameters for layers consisting of different fines contents. Moreover, using the obtained correlation, a chart was proposed which relates the cyclic resistance ratio to the appropriate SDS parameter. Using the proposed chart, liquefaction potential of soil can be estimated directly using SDS data. As SDS method is simpler, faster and more economical test than CPT and SPT, it can be a reliable alternative in-situ test for soil characterization, especially in residential house constructions.
Breakfast. In this day and age it can consist of anything from a cup of coffee or a piece of toast to a full fry up. We eat it on the run (guilty!), over the newspaper (or smartphone, increasingly), at … Continue reading →
SKIP is a government funded initiative that supports parents and whanau to guide their children's behaviour in a positive way. Earthquake related information can be found in the archived instances from September 2010-
An interactive site in which primary and intermediate school children provide descriptions of their experiences, sometimes with pictures. The descriptions are listed in chronological order of posting and can also be accessed by the name of the school.
A wide range of information about Council business and services, bylaws, public activities. Includes media releases and information about events and facilities in Christchurch. Earthquake related information can be found in the archived instances from September 2010-
A public wiki where schools, students and experts from around the world can share thoughts and experiences around earthquakes, with a particular focus on the Canterbury 2010 earthquake. Website content has been archived, but is not currently viewing in the browser.
Information about CDEM planning, programmes and the Ministry itself. Includes emergency preparedness information for the public and downloadable resources for civil defence sector workers. Earthquake related information can be found in the archived instances from September 2010-
USAR codes and a yellow sticker can be seen on the doors of a damaged building. The yellow sticker was part of a building assessment system used following the February earthquake and indicates that this building has limited access and needs further evaluation.
The Christchurch suburb of Sydenham was badly affected by the first earthquake in September and February's quake has struck another blow to the local retail sector. But as Katy Gosset has found, shop owners say they're confident they can rebuild.
Damage to the north side of the cathedral. A walkway from Gloucester Street to the Square was opened up for a few days to allow the public a closer look at the cathedral. Weeds can be seen growing around the war memorial in Cathedral Square.
One of the most commonly assumed facts about archaeologists (aside from our ability to have adventures, look good in a fedora and be surprisingly skilful with a whip), is that we can look at an object and know how old … Continue reading →
Context is an important concept in archaeology. Everyday artefacts, often mundane and fragmented, can take on a powerful meaning due to an unusual placement or an association with other material of a different type or function. These circumstances will often … Continue reading →
When it comes to the weird and wonderful in 19th century life, it’s hard to go past the field of medicine: specifically, pharmaceutical and ‘self-care’ remedies. Health-related products can be some of the wackiest and most interesting things we find … Continue reading →
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Kaiapoi Senior Constable Anna Stenhouse can still share a laugh with National list MP Kate Wilkinson and Minister of Police Judith Collins after losing her house in the 4 September quake".
Christchurch is rightly or wrongly traditionally thought of as an English city, but at every turn we can see a glimpse of England’s arch enemy…the Scots. While they may now technically be at peace, they do still meet annually on … Continue reading →
A view down Armagh Street where a cordon checkpoint has been set up and guarded by the Army. On the road side are rubbish bins and road cones to divert the traffic. Part of the Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings can be seen.
Dried liquefaction silt in North New Brighton. The photographer comments, "Here you can see the very fine surface layer of liquefaction starting to shrink, crack and then curl up on itself".
View down Victoria Street with the Casino on the right having some construction working being done, and the deconsruction of the Crowne Plaza Hotel at the end of the street. Flags in Canterbury colours, red and black can be seen on the street lights.
A photograph of SPCA Wellington vehicles parked on the intersection of Lichfield and Manchester Streets after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. In the background, the earthquake damage to the Tower Chambers building can be seen.
As the study of human history, it comes as no surprise that archaeology can be an exercise in contradictions. Humans are, after all, complex and paradoxical creatures. From a material culture perspective, one of the most obvious and frustrating incongruities … Continue reading →