Search

found 1113 results

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

Slipping of the tectonic plates caused tension cracks on this previously unknown faultline that runs through this paddock; magnitude 7.1 earthquake in mid-Canterbury on Saturday 4 September 2010.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

Slipping of the tectonic plates caused tension cracks on this previously unknown faultline that runs through this paddock; magnitude 7.1 earthquake in mid-Canterbury on Saturday 4 September 2010.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

This originally straight farm fence has been laterally displaced at least 3 metres where it crosses the previously unknown faultline from which the Saturday 4 September 2010 earthquake originated.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

Slipping of the tectonic plates caused tension cracks on this previously unknown faultline that runs through this paddock; magnitude 7.1 earthquake in mid-Canterbury on Saturday 4 September 2010.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

This originally straight farm fence has been laterally displaced at least 2 metres where it crosses the previously unknown faultline from which the Saturday 4 September 2010 earthquake originated.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

Slipping of the tectonic plates caused tension cracks on this previously unknown faultline that runs through this paddock; magnitude 7.1 earthquake in mid-Canterbury on Saturday 4 September 2010.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

Slipping of the tectonic plates caused tension cracks on this previously unknown faultline that runs through this paddock; magnitude 7.1 earthquake in mid-Canterbury on Saturday 4 September 2010.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

One Month after the Christchurch Earthquake. The mangled remains of the pedestrian bridge over the river Avon Twitter | Facebook | My ...

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

Slipping of the tectonic plates caused tension cracks on this previously unknown faultline that runs through this paddock; magnitude 7.1 earthquake in mid-Canterbury on Saturday 4 September 2010.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

Slipping of the tectonic plates caused tension cracks on this previously unknown faultline that runs through this paddock; magnitude 7.1 earthquake in mid-Canterbury on Saturday 4 September 2010.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

This originally straight farm fence has been laterally displaced at least 2 metres where it crosses the previously unknown faultline from which the Saturday 4 September 2010 earthquake originated.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

This originally straight farm fence has been laterally displaced at least 2 metres where it crosses the previously unknown faultline from which the Saturday 4 September 2010 earthquake originated.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

Looking along this previously unknown faultline that runs through this paddock, note how the ground had heaved and subsided; magnitude 7.1 earthquake in mid-Canterbury on Saturday 4 September 2010.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

One Month after the Christchurch Earthquake. The remains of a Church in St albans, Edgeware Rd Twitter | Facebook | My Website | <...

Audio, Radio New Zealand

It's been a long road to restore Christchurch's Isaac Theatre Royal, but tonight, it will finally open its doors again. The theatre sustained considerable damage in the earthquakes of 22nd February and 13th June 2011 and continuing shakes have made the restoration particularly difficult for architects. The project architect from Warren and Mahoney, is Vanessa Carswell.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Aftermath of the earthquake in Christchurch where the cleanup has begun. USAR team members Mike Harvey, left, Craig Stevenson and Dr Jan Kupec, right, with Loss Adjustor Jonathan Winn from Cunningham Lindsey, centre right, work on Riccarton Road at the Rotherham Street intersection where several buildings were cordoned off".

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Flowers blooming in a vacant site left by the demolition of a building at the corner of Worcester Street and Stanmore Road. A memorial poster made to commemorate Natasha Sarah Hadfield, who died at the site where the Wicks Fish business was located. On it are comments from the public and the word ' We miss you mummy' in big letters.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

A few older Christchurch Earthquake Pics from after the 6.3 last Feb (2011). And yes the aftershocks are still happening.. Twitter | Facebook |

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

One Month after the Christchurch Earthquake. This is in Kaiapoi at the north end of Christchurch. A view down the walkway next to the river Twitter | Facebook |

Images, UC QuakeStudies

The former Ozone Dressing Sheds in North New Brighton, with broken and boarded-up windows. The photographer comments, "This is the Ozone as it was before it was demolished. It appeared to have been in the process of being redecorated internally, but the February Christchurch earthquake seems to have caused its demise".

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

One of the less understood geotechnical responses to the cyclic loading from the MW6.2 Christchurch Earthquake, on the 22nd of February 2011, is the fissuring in the loessial soil-mantled, footslope positions of the north-facing valleys of the Port Hills. The fissures are characterized by mostly horizontal offset (≤500mm), with minor vertical displacement (≤300mm), and they extend along both sides of valleys for several hundred metres in an approximately contour-parallel orientation. The fissure traces correspond to extensional features mapped in other studies. Previous studies have suggested that the fissures are the headscarps of incipient landslides, but the surface and subsurface features are not typical of landslide movement. Whilst there are some features that correlate with landslide movement, there are many features that contradict the landslide movement hypothesis. Of critical importance to this investigation was the fact that there are no landslide flanks, there has been no basal shear surface found, there is little deformation in the so-called ‘landslide body’, and there have been no recorded zones of low shear strength in the soil deposit that are indicative of a basal shear surface. This thesis is a detailed geotechnical study on the fissures along part of Ramahana Road in the Hillsborough Valley, Christchurch. Shallow and deep investigation methods found that the predominant soil is loess-colluvium, to depths of ~20m, and this soil has variable geotechnical characteristics depending on the layer sampled. The factor that has the most influence on shear strength was found to be the moisture content. Direct shear-box testing of disturbed, recompacted loess-colluvium found that the soil had a cohesion of 35-65kPa and a friction angle of 38-43° when the soil moisture content was at 8-10%. However when the moisture content was at 19-20% the soil’s cohesion decreased to 3-5kPa and its friction angle decreased to 33-38°, this moisture content is at or slightly above the plastic limit. An electrical resistivity geophysical survey was conducted perpendicular to multiple fissure traces and through the compressional zone at 17 Ramahana Road. The electrical resistivity line found that there was an area of high resistivity at the toe of the slope, and an area of high conductivity downslope of this and at greater depths. This area correlated to the compressional zone recorded by previous studies. Moisture content testing of the soil in these locations showed that the soil in the resistive area was relatively dry (9%) compared to the surrounding soil (13%), whilst the soil in the conductive area was relatively wet (22%)compared to the surrounding soil (19%). Density tests of the soil in the compressional zone recorded that the resistive area had a higher dry density than the surrounding soil (~1790 kg/m3 compared to ~1650 kg/m3). New springs arose downslope of the compressional zone contemporaneously with the fissures, and it is interpreted that these have arisen from increased hydraulic head in the Banks Peninsula bedrock aquifer system, and earthquake induced-bedrock fracturing. A test pit was dug across an infilled fissure trace at 17 Ramahana Road to a depth of 3m. The fissure trace had an aperture of 450-470mm at the ground surface, but it gradually lost aperture with depth until 2.0-2.1m where it became a segmented fissure trace with 1-2mm aperture. A mixed-colluvium layer was intercepted by the fissure trace at 2.4m depth, and there was no observable vertical offset of this layer. The fissure trace was at an angle of 78° at the ground surface, but it also flattened with depth, which gave it a slightly curved appearance. The fissure trace was at an assumed angle of 40-50° near the base of the test pit. Rotational slide, translational slide and lateral spread landslide movement types were compared and contrasted as possibilities for landslide movement types, whilst an alternative hypothesis was offered that the fissures are tensile failures with a quasi-toppling motion involving a cohesive block of loessial soil moving outwards from the slope, with an accommodating compressional strain in the lower less cohesive soil. The mechanisms behind this movement are suggested to be the horizontal earthquake inertia forces from the Christchurch Earthquake, the static shear stress of the slope, and bedrock uplift of the Port Hills in relation to the subsidence of the Christchurch city flatlands. Extremely high PGA is considered to be a prerequisite to the fissure trace development, and these can only be induced in the Hillsborough Valley from a Port Hills Fault rupture, which has a recurrence interval of ~10,000 years. The current understanding of how the loess-colluvium soil would behave under cyclic loading is limited, and the mechanisms behind the suggested movement type are not completely understood. Further research is needed to confirm the proposed mechanism of the fissure traces. Laboratory tests such as the cyclic triaxial and cyclic shear test would be beneficial in future research to quantitatively test how the soil behaves under cyclic loading at various moisture contents and clay contents, and centrifuge experiments would be of great use to qualitatively test the suggested mode of movement in the loessial soil.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Following the 22nd February 2011, Mw 6.2 earthquake located along a previously unknown fault beneath the Port Hills of Christchurch, surface cracking was identified in contour parallel locations within fill material at Quarry Road on the lower slopes of Mount Pleasant. GNS Science, in the role of advisor to the Christchurch City Council, concluded that these cracks were a part of a potential rotational mass movement (named zone 11A) within the fill and airfall loess material present. However, a lack of field evidence for slope instability and an absence of laboratory geotechnical data on which slope stability analysis was based, suggested this conclusion is potentially incorrect. It was hypothesised that ground cracking was in fact due to earthquake shaking, and not mass movement within the slope, thus forming the basis of this study. Three soil units were identified during surface and subsurface investigations at Quarry Road: fill derived from quarry operations in the adjacent St. Andrews Quarry (between 1893 and 1913), a buried topsoil, and underlying in-situ airfall loess. The fill material was identified by the presence of organic-rich topsoil “clods” that were irregular in both size (∼10 – 200 mm) and shape, with variable thicknesses of 1 – 10 m. Maximum thickness, as indicated by drill holes and geophysical survey lines, was identified below 6 Quarry Road and 7 The Brae where it is thought to infill a pre-existing gully formed in the underlying airfall loess. Bearing strength of the fill consistently exceeded 300 kPa ultimate below ∼500 mm depth. The buried topsoil was 200 – 300 mm thick, and normally displayed a lower bearing strength when encountered, but not below 300 kPa ultimate (3 – 11 blows per 100mm or ≥100 kPa allowable). In-situ airfall loess stood vertically in outcrop due to its characteristic high dry strength and also showed Scala penetrometer values of 6 – 20+ blows per 100 mm (450 – ≥1000 kPa ultimate). All soils were described as being moist to dry during subsurface investigations, with no groundwater table identified during any investigation into volcanic bedrock. In-situ moisture contents were established using bulk disturbed samples from hand augers and test pitting. Average moisture contents were low at 9% within the fill, 11 % within the buried topsoil, and 8% within the airfall loess: all were below the associated average plastic limit of 17, 15, and 16, respectively, determined during Atterberg limit analysis. Particle size distributions, identified using the sieve and pipette method, were similar between the three soil units with 11 – 20 % clay, 62 – 78 % silt, and 11 – 20 % fine sand. Using these results and the NZGS soil classification, the loess derived fill and in-situ airfall loess are termed SILT with some clay and sand, and the buried topsoil is SILT with minor clay and sand. Dispersivity of the units was found using the Emerson crumb test, which established that the fill can be non- to completely dispersive (score 0 – 4). The buried topsoil was always non-dispersive (score 0), and airfall loess completely dispersive (score 4). Values for cohesion (c) and internal friction angle (φ) of the three soil units were established using the direct shear box at field moisture contents. Results showed all soil units had high shear strengths at the moisture contents tested (c = 18 – 24 kPa and φ = 42 – 50°), with samples behaving in a brittle fashion. Moisture content was artificially increased to 16% within the buried topsoil, which reduced the shear strength (c = 10 kPa, φ = 18°) and allowed it to behave plastically. Observational information indicating stability at Quarry Road included: shallow, discontinuous, cracks that do not display vertical offset; no scarp features or compressional zones typical of landsliding; no tilted or deformed structures; no movement in inclinometers; no basal shear zone identified in logged core to 20 m depth; low field moisture contents; no groundwater table; and high soil strength using Scala penetrometers. Limit equilibrium analysis of the slope was conducted using Rocscience software Slide 5.0 to verify the slope stability identified by observational methods. Friction, cohesion, and density values determined during laboratory were input into the two slope models investigated. Results gave minimum static factor of safety values for translational (along buried topsoil) and rotational (in the fill) slides of 2.4 – 4.2. Sensitivity of the slope to reduced shear strength parameters was analysed using c = 10 kPa and φ = 18° for the translational buried topsoil plane, and a cohesion of 0 kPa within the fill for the rotational plane. The only situation that gave a factor of safety <1.0 was in nonengineered fill at 0.5 m depth. Pseudostatic analysis based on previous peak ground acceleration (PGA) values for the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence, and predicted PGAs for future Alpine Fault and Hope Fault earthquakes established minimum factor of safety values between 1.2 and 3.3. Yield acceleration PGAs were computed to be between 0.8g and 1.6g. Based on all information gathered, the cracking at Quarry Road is considered to be shallow deformation in response to earthquake shaking, and not due to deep-seated landsliding. It is recommended that the currently bare site be managed by smoothing the land, installing contour drainage, and bioremediation of the surface soils to reduce surface water infiltration and runoff. Extensive earthworks, including removal of the fill, are considered unnecessary. Any future replacement of housing would be subject to site-specific investigations, and careful foundation design based on those results.