The M7.1 Darfield earthquake shook the town of Christchurch (New Zealand) in the early morning on Saturday 4th September 2010 and caused damage to a number of heritage unreinforced masonry buildings. No fatalities were reported directly linked to the earthquake, but the damage to important heritage buildings was the most extensive to have occurred since the 1931 Hawke‟s Bay earthquake. In general, the nature of damage was consistent with observations previously made on the seismic performance of unreinforced masonry buildings in large earthquakes, with aspects such as toppled chimneys and parapets, failure of gables and poorly secured face-loaded walls, and in-plane damage to masonry frames all being extensively documented. This report on the performance of the unreinforced masonry buildings in the 2010 Darfield earthquake provides details on typical building characteristics, a review of damage statistics obtained by interrogating the building assessment database that was compiled in association with post-earthquake building inspections, and a review of the characteristic failure modes that were observed.
Labour MPs in Christchurch are calling on the Government to tell people now if their earthquake damaged land has to be abandoned.
Disgruntled Christchurch red-zoners who want the government to rethink its policy on quake-damaged homes are backing Labour's Earthquake Recovery Package.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to a house in Christchurch. The side wall has crumbled, exposing the inside of the house.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to a house in Christchurch. The side wall has crumbled, exposing the inside of the house.
A photograph of an earthquake-damaged house in Christchurch. The bricks on the side of the house have crumbled, exposing the inside.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to a residential street in Christchurch. Portaloos can be seen on both sides of the road.
A photograph of emergency management personnel exiting the car park of the earthquake-damaged Press House on Gloucester Street.
Concern about the demolition process of heritage buildings in Christchurch. With Anna Crighton - Chairperson of the Canterbury Earthquake Heritage Buildings Fund Trust, which raises money, matched by the government, to save quake-damaged heritage buildings.
Earthquake damage to the former Christchurch Girls' High building. Bricks have fallen from the gable ends of the building, exposing the rooms within.
Damage to The Bone Dude's Bone Carving Studio and Cultured Gallery on Fitzgerald Avenue. The brick wall is cracked, and the guttering has fallen. The photographer comments, "This building was damaged in the September earthquake in Christchurch. It was the Bone dude's bone carving studio. The motto on the wall was 'Carve your own' and it looks like the earthquakes did just that".
For the first time in November 2011, Christchurch residents finally had the opportunity to see the earthquake-damaged city centre on the Red Zone bus tours organised by CERA. Damage to the Odeon Theatre can be seen out the window.
For the first time in November 2011, Christchurch residents finally had the opportunity to see the earthquake-damaged city centre on the Red Zone bus tours organised by CERA. Damage to the Odeon Theatre can be seen out the window.
For the first time in November 2011, Christchurch residents finally had the opportunity to see the earthquake-damaged city centre on the Red Zone bus tours organised by CERA. Damage to buildings on Cashel Street can be seen out the window.
Insurance cover has been cancelled for Christchurch's historic Arts Centre and its Catholic Cathedral which were both badly damaged in the February earthquake.
One landscape colour digital photograph taken on 25 February 2011 showing damage to the Lodge of Unanimity No 3 at the intersection of St Davids Street and Sumner Road. Original BuildingAdditions The Lodge of Unanimity was established in Lyttelton in 1851. This building was designed in 1878 by Benjamin Woolfield Mountfort, who was a member of th...
A view down Cashel Street from the Bridge of Remembrance, showing earthquake damage to several buildings along Cashel Mall. In the background the Hotel Grand Chancellor can be seen, a Christchurch hotel that was badly damaged in the February 2011 earthquake. The collapse of a key supporting shear wall caused the building to visibly lean to one side.
The sign was relating to damage sustained from the Sept 2010 quake. Photoshopped by Alice to update it since the Feb 22nd quake.
The thousands of Christchurch residents expected to be forced into temporary Government-supplied accommodation by earthquake damage will be required to pay rent.
As part of the future of Christchurch it is expected a third of all Catholic and almost half of all Presbyterian churches damaged in Christchurch's February earthquake might not be rebuilt.
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the city of Christchurch at 12:51pm on Tuesday 22 February 2011. The earthquake caused 182 fatalities, a large number of injuries, and resulted in widespread damage to the built environment, including significant disruption to the lifelines. The event created the largest lifeline disruption in a New Zealand city in 80 years, with much of the damage resulting from extensive and severe liquefaction in the Christchurch urban area. The Christchurch earthquake occurred when the Canterbury region and its lifelines systems were at the early stage of recovering from the 4 September 2010 Darfield (Canterbury) magnitude 7.1 earthquake. This paper describes the impact of the Christchurch earthquake on lifelines by briefly summarising the physical damage to the networks, the system performance and the operational response during the emergency management and the recovery phase. Special focus is given to the performance and management of the gas, electric and road networks and to the liquefaction ejecta clean-up operations that contributed to the rapid reinstatement of the functionality of many of the lifelines. The water and wastewater system performances are also summarized. Elements of resilience that contributed to good network performance or to efficient emergency and recovery management are highlighted in the paper.
One landscape colour digital photograph taken on 19 November 2011 showing the Lyttelton Fire Station. The building is fenced off and unused due to earthquake damage. To the right of the photograph the front of one of the Fire Appliances and the shipping containers set up in the rear car park to provide temporary facilities can be seen. Followin...
The Royal Commission into the Canterbury Earthquakes has heard evidence questioning the measure used to judge how resistant a building is to earthquake damage. It's come on the second day of hearings into why unreinforced masonry buildings collapsed in Christchurch during the February 22nd earthquake, killing 40 people.
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A photograph of a car parked off Montreal Street which has been crushed by bricks falling from an earthquake-damaged building.
A photograph of a car parked off Montreal Street which has been crushed by bricks falling from an earthquake-damaged building.
The cartoon shows the lid of a sewer that has been dislodged allowing cockroaches labelled 'looter' to crawl out. Context - The very severe Christchurch earthquake of 22 February 2011 in which probably more than 200 people died and an enormous amount of structural damage has been done. There are inevitably people taking advantage of the fact that there are many abandoned homes which offer rich pickings. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
The Christchurch region of New Zealand experienced a series of major earthquakes and aftershocks between September 2010 and June 2011 which caused severe damage to the city’s infrastructure. The performance of tilt-up precast concrete buildings was investigated and initial observations are presented here. In general, tilt-up buildings performed well during all three major earthquakes, with mostly only minor, repairable damage occurring. For the in-plane loading direction, both loadbearing and cladding panels behaved exceptionally well, with no significant damage or failure observed in panels and their connections. A limited number of connection failures occurred due to large out-of-plane panel inertia forces. In several buildings, the connections between the panel and the internal structural frame appeared to be the weakest link, lacking in both strength and ductility. This weakness in the out-of-plane load path should be prevented in future designs.
The cartoon shows the hands of two people joined in mutual despair and kindness. One represents 'Christchurch' and the other the 'Pike River Mine'. Context - the 7.1 earthquake on 4 September 2010 in Christchurch in which there was a lot of damage but no deaths, the Pike River Mine disaster which occurred on the West Coast on 19 November 2010 and caused the deaths of 29 coal miners and now on 22 February 2011 a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch which has probably killed more than 200 people (at this point the number is still not known) and caused much more severe damage. The reason the apparently lesser magnitude quake caused more destruction is because it was very shallow, was in the middle of the day and struck very close to the centre of the city. Colour and black and white versions of this cartoon are available Quantity: 2 digital cartoon(s).
Unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings have repeatedly been shown to perform poorly in large magnitude earthquakes, with both New Zealand and Australia having a history of past earthquakes that have resulted in fatalities due to collapsed URM buildings. A comparison is presented here of the URM building stock and the seismic vulnerability of Christchurch and Adelaide in order to demonstrate the relevance to Australian cities of observations in Christchurch resulting from the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquake swarm. It is shown that the materials, architecture and hence earthquake strength of URM buildings in both countries is comparable and that Adelaide and other cities of Australia have seismic vulnerability sufficient to cause major damage to their URM buildings should a design level earthquake occur. Such an earthquake is expected to cause major building damage, and fatalities should be expected.