A story submitted by Louise Swatton to the QuakeStories website.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 26 February 2012 entitled, "Quakes and Quietude".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 30 March 2012 entitled, "Going, going, gone".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 12 March 2012 entitled, "Central CERA City".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 17 February 2012 entitled, "Approaching Anniversary".
Shipping containers support the facade of the Excelsior Hotel, the only part of the hotel still standing. The Two Fat Indians restaurant next door has also closed due to earthquake damage.
Deputy Vice Chancellor Ian Town speaking at the remembrance service held on the C block lawn at the University of Canterbury to mark one year since the February 22 2011 earthquake.
University Chaplain Reverend Tom Innes speaking at the remembrance service held on the C block lawn at the University of Canterbury to mark one year since the February 22 2011 earthquake.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 8 October 2012, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 27 August 2012, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
An entry from Deb Robertson's blog for 7 December 2012 entitled, "This too will pass...".
An entry from Roz Johnson's blog for 7 February 2012 entitled, "It Makes Me Want to Sing".
An entry from Deb Robertson's blog for 20 January 2012 entitled, "This week I've been....".
An entry from Deb Robertson's blog for 31 July 2012 entitled, "Planning a Road Cone Quilt....".
A laminated tribute notice from Nicholas Pole and staff, of the Ministry of Education, to the friends, colleagues and young people who lost their lives on 22 February 2011.
Page 7 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 5 May 2012.
Page 2 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Thursday 14 June 2012.
Page 3 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Monday 25 June 2012.
A PDF copy of The Star newspaper, published on Friday 6 July 2012.
Page 9 of Section C of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 28 January 2012.
Page 2 of Section C of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 11 February 2012.
A PDF copy of The Star newspaper, published on Wednesday 27 June 2012.
A PDF copy of The Star newspaper, published on Wednesday 11 July 2012.
Colour photograph of the ChristChurch Cathedral bells in the Tuning Shop at Taylor's Bell Foundry, Loughborough, United Kingdom, during an open afternoon on Sunday 30 September 2012.
A PDF copy of The Star newspaper, published on Wednesday 28 November 2012.
Shipping containers against the cliff on the road to Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_012.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
None
During the Christchurch earthquake of February 2011, several midrise buildings of Reinforced Concrete Masonry (RCM) construction achieved performance levels in the range of life safety to near collapse levels. These buildings were subjected to seismic demands higher than the building code requirements of the time and higher than the current New Zealand Loadings Standard (NZS-1170.5:2004). Structural damage to these buildings has been documented and is currently being studied to establish lessons to be learned from their performance and how to incorporate these lessons into future RCM design and construction practices. This paper presents a case study of a six story RCM building deemed to have reached the near collapse performance level. The RCM walls on the 2nd floor failed due to toe crushing reducing the building’s lateral resistance in the east-west direction. A nonlinear dynamic analysis on a 3D model was conducted to simulate the development of the governing failure mechanism. Preliminary analysis results show that the damaged walls were initially under large compression forces from gravity loads which caused increase in their lateral strength and reduced their ductility. After toe crushing failure developed, axial instability of the model was prevented by a redistribution of gravity loads.
Following the 22 February 2011, MW 6.2 earthquake located on a fault beneath the Port Hills of Christchurch, fissuring of up to several hundred metres in length was observed in the loess and loess-colluvium of foot-slope positions in north-facing valleys of the Port Hills. The fissuring was observed in all major valleys, occurred at similar low altitudes, showing a contour-parallel orientation and often accompanied by both lateral compression/extension features and spring formation in the valley floor below. Fissuring locations studied in depth included Bowenvale Valley, Hillsborough Valley, Huntlywood Terrace–Lucas Lane, Bridle Path Road, and Maffeys Road–La Costa Lane. Investigations into loess soil, its properties and mannerisms, as well as international examples of its failure were undertaken, including study of the Loess Plateau of China, the Teton Dam, and palaeo-fissuring on Banks Peninsula. These investigations lead to the conclusion that loess has the propensity to fail, often due to the infiltration of water, the presence of which can lead to its instantaneous disaggregation. Literature study and laboratory analysis of Port Hills loess concluded that is has the ability to be stable in steep, sub-vertical escarpments, and often has a sub-vertically jointed internal structure and has a peak shear strength when dry. Values for cohesion, c (kPa) and the internal friction angle, ϕ (degrees) of Port Hills loess were established. The c values for the 40 Rapaki Road, 3 Glenview Terrace loess samples were 13.4 kPa and 19.7 kPa, respectively. The corresponding ϕ values were thought unusually high, at 42.0° and 43.4°.The analysed loess behaved very plastically, with little or no peak strength visible in the plots as the test went almost directly to residual strength. A geophysics resistivity survey showed an area of low resistivity which likely corresponds to a zone of saturated clayey loess/loess colluvium, indicating a high water table in the area. This is consistent with the appearances of local springs which are located towards the northern end of each distinct section of fissure trace and chemical analysis shows that they are sourced from the Port Hills volcanics. Port Hills fissuring may be sub-divided into three categories, Category A, Category B, and Category C, each characterised by distinctive features of the fissures. Category A includes fissures which display evidence of, spring formation, tunnel-gullying, and lateral spreading-like behaviour or quasi-toppling. These fissures are several metres down-slope of the loess-bedrock interface, and are in valleys containing a loess-colluvium fill. Category B fissures are in wider valleys than those in Category A, and the valleys contain estuarine silty sediments which liquefied during the earthquake. Category C fissures occurred at higher elevations than the fissures in the preceding categories, being almost coincident with bedrock outcropping. It is believed that the mechanism responsible for causing the fissuring is a complex combination of three mechanisms: the trampoline effect, bedrock fracturing, and lateral spreading. These three mechanisms can be applied in varying degrees to each of the fissuring sites in categories A, B, and C, in order to provide explanation for the observations made at each. Toppling failure can describe the soil movement as a consequence of the a three causative mechanisms, and provides insight into the movement of the loess. Intra-loess water coursing and tunnel gullying is thought to have encouraged and exacerbated the fissuring, while not being the driving force per se. Incipient landsliding is considered to be the least likely of the possible fissuring interpretations.
For the people of Christchurch and its wider environs of Canterbury in New Zealand, the 4th of September 2010 earthquake and the subsequent aftershocks were daunting. To then experience a more deadly earthquake five months later on the 22nd of February 2011 was, for the majority, overwhelming. A total of 185 people were killed and the earthquake and continuing aftershocks caused widespread damage to properties, especially in the central city and eastern suburbs. A growing body of literature consistently documents the negative impact of experiencing natural disasters on existing psychological disorders. As well, several studies have identified positive coping strategies which can be used in response to adversities, including reliance on spiritual and cultural beliefs as well as developing resilience and social support. The lifetime prevalence of severe mental health disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) occurring as a result of experiencing natural disasters in the general population is low. However, members of refugee communities who were among those affected by these earthquakes, as well as having a past history of experiencing traumatic events, were likely to have an increased vulnerability. The current study was undertaken to investigate the relevance to Canterbury refugee communities of the recent Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) draft recovery strategy for Christchurch post-earthquakes. This was accomplished by interviewing key informants who worked closely with refugee communities. These participants were drawn from different agencies in Christchurch including Refugee Resettlement Services, the Canterbury Refugee Council, CERA, and health promotion and primary healthcare organisations, in order to obtain the views of people who have comprehensive knowledge of refugee communities as well as expertise in local mainstream services. The findings from the semi-structured interviews were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis to identify common themes raised by the participants. The key informants described CERA’s draft recovery strategy as a significant document which highlighted the key aspects of recovery post disaster. Many key informants identified concerns regarding the practicality of the draft recovery strategy. For the refugee communities, some of those concerns included the short consultation period for the implementation phase of the draft recovery strategy, and issues surrounding communication and collaboration between refugee agencies involved in the recovery. This study draws attention to the importance of communication and collaboration during recovery, especially in the social reconstruction phase following a disaster, for all citizens but most especially for refugee communities.