Laura, Nicola, and Debra watch a sand volcano build in the Wyn Street gutter.
(I righted the bird bath after the initial earthquake. None of the after-shocks were sufficient to knock it over again.)
A photograph of emergency management personnel examining a block of earthquake-damaged rooms at Stonehurst Accommodation on Gloucester Street. The bottom storey of the block has collapsed and the remaining rooms are now resting on an incline. The front walls of these rooms have also collapsed and the rubble has spilled in to the courtyard in front. Cordon tape has been draped across the courtyard in front of the rubble. In the foreground there is liquefaction on the ground from a liquefaction volcano.
And, yes, the newspaper always gets through! The Press newspapers were delivered in our area of Hoon Hay in the hours after the earthquake.
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A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The estuary situated behind Seabreeze Close in Bexley. The estuary shows signs of liquefaction with a large number of sand volcanoes appearing".
An usual thing to see coming from the ground in Hoon Hay, Christchurch.
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These were scattered across the park.
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "A view of the estuary which is just behind Seabreeze Close, Bexley. The estuary shows signs of liquefaction with a large number of sand volcanoes appearing".
The earthquake knocked over the bird bath.
A sand volcano in the Halswell Primary School grounds near the playground. Sand volcanoes were caused by liquefaction where the soil loses its strength during the earthquake and the silt rises upwards, ejecting out of a hole like magma in a volcano.
Sand volcanoes put the silt all over the road.
Lots of people were out and about in the streets checking on everyone after the earthquake. When it was clear that everyone was OK, the sand volcanos became the feature of interest.
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "A sand volcano outside the window of the home at 22 Seabreeze Close, Bexley".
It would have been a glorious Spring day in Christchurch had it not been for the magnitude 7.1 earthquake at 4:30 am. All the water and silt you can see covering the street in this photo erupted from the ground following the earthquake.
Yes, it was a joke. The tours, that is, not the yard filled with earthquake-caused sand volcanos. They were very real. You can see one covering the driveway in this photo. The signs read as follows. "Tours run 1/2 hourly. $5.25 admission. Eftpos unavailable." "If you think this is bad... you should see the back!"
One of the many sand volcanos erupting from the ground after the Christchurch earthquake.
A photograph of a block of earthquake-damaged rooms at Stonehurst Accommodation on Gloucester Street. The bottom storey of the block has collapsed and the remaining rooms are now resting on an incline. The front walls of these rooms have also collapsed and the rubble has spilled in to the courtyard in front. Cordon tape has been draped across the courtyard in front of the rubble. To the left there is a car parked amongst the rubble.
A misaligned brick wall in front of a property with silt still piled up around it. During the earthquake, liquefaction drove silt to the surface where it erupted out of the ground like a volcano and formed a pile like the one seen here.