17 jobs have gone at the Christchurch Art Gallery, which is closed for earthquake repairs until at least June next year.
The Christchurch city council is reconsidering its plan to dump five thousand tonnes of asbestos contaminated rubble in Bottle Lake Forest Park landfill which has been reopened to take earthquake debris.
A group of angry Christchurch locals are considering legal action against one of the country's biggest insurance companies because they say their earthquake claims are taking too long to settle.
The man whose firm designed the CTV building has apologised for the first time to the families of the 115 people killed when the building collapsed in the Christchurch earthquake.
For the first time the man whose firm designed the CTV building has apologised to the families of the 115 people killed when it collapsed in the Christchurch earthquake.
For the first time Alan Reay, whose firm designed the collapsed CTV building, has apologised to the families of the 115 people killed in the Christchurch earthquake 18 months ago.
The risk of another large earthquake hitting Christchurch has declined and is getting smaller.
Canterbury earthquakes is recommending toughening the standards for concrete buildings and structural steel.
Our Christchurch correspondent, Katy Gosset takes us on a musical journey with the help of one of the city's longest serving pianists. For 23 years Peter Lewis played the piano in the Crowne Plaza Hotel before being made redundant by the February 2011 earthquake. Peter has since struggled to find a way to share his music with others. Today Katy seeks out some city pianos and takes him on a mystery tour to rediscover the pleasure of playing.
The Earthquake Recovery Minister and the Insurance Council both deny that insurance companies pressured the Government to relax building guidelines in Canterbury.
The rebuild of central Christchurch has been taken out of the control of the city council and will now be managed by a newly formed unit within the Government's Earthquake Recovery Authority.
Christchurch locals made homeless by the earthquakes have made an emotional plea to the council for 100 percent rates relief.
Christchurch residents made homeless by the earthquakes have made an emotional plea to the city council for 100 percent rates relief.
In the next few minutes, the Student Volunteer Army in Christchurch is being presented with the ANZAC of the Year award, to recognise the huge clean up job the students did after the earthquakes.
At least five companies are busy working in and around Christchurch blasting rock on unstable slopes in the hope of reducing danger since the earthquakes. Spectrum's Deborah Nation joins backcountry construction company Solutions 2 Access, as the team blasts rock on the Port Hills above Lyttelton.
With half his life work destroyed by earthquakes, Christchurch conservator Graham Stewart is on a mission to save what is left of Canterbury's remarkable stained glass history.
Stonemason Mark Whyte puts sculpting commissions aside in order to respond to the Christchurch earthquakes and save classic street facades from the 1870s. Across the Red Zone and 3 generations of the Aires family- Bob, Rob and Suzie are at work on the Heritage Hotel which were the old government buildings.
The structure and geomorphology of active orogens evolves on time scales ranging from a single earthquake to millions of years of tectonic deformation. Analysis of crustal deformation using new and established remote sensing techniques, and integration of these data with field mapping, geochronology and the sedimentary record, create new opportunities to understand orogenic evolution over these timescales. Timor Leste (East Timor) lies on the northern collisional boundary between continental crust from the Australian Plate and the Banda volcanic arc. GPS studies have indicated that the island of Timor is actively shortening. Field mapping and fault kinematic analysis of an emergent Pliocene marine sequence identifies gentle folding, overprinted by a predominance of NW-SE oriented dextral-normal faults and NE-SW oriented sinistral-normal faults that collectively bound large (5-20km2) bedrock massifs throughout the island. These fault systems intersect at non-Andersonian conjugate angles of approximately 120° and accommodate an estimated 20 km of orogen-parallel extension. Folding of Pliocene rocks in Timor may represent an early episode of contraction but the overall pattern of deformation is one of lateral crustal extrusion sub-parallel to the Banda Arc. Stratigraphic relationships suggest that extrusion began prior to 5.5 Ma, during and after initial uplift of the orogen. Sedimentological, geochemical and Nd isotope data indicate that the island of Timor was emergent and shedding terrigenous sediment into carbonate basins prior to 4.5 Ma. Synorogenic tectonic and sedimentary phases initiated almost synchronously across much of Timor Leste and <2 Myr before similar events in West Timor. An increase in plate coupling along this obliquely converging boundary, due to subduction of an outlying continental plateau at the Banda Trench, is proposed as a mechanism for uplift that accounts for orogen-parallel extension and early uplift of Timor Leste. Rapid bathymetric changes around Timor are likely to have played an important role in evolution of the Indonesian Seaway. The 2010 Mw 7.1 Darfield (Canterbury) earthquake in New Zealand was complex, involving multiple faults with strike-slip, reverse and normal displacements. Multi-temporal cadastral surveying and airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) surveys allowed surface deformation at the junction of three faults to be analyzed in this study in unprecedented detail. A nested, localized restraining stepover with contractional bulging was identified in an area with the overall fault structure of a releasing bend, highlighting the surface complexities that may develop in fault interaction zones during a single earthquake sequence. The earthquake also caused river avulsion and flooding in this area. Geomorphic investigations of these rivers prior to the earthquake identify plausible precursory patterns, including channel migration and narrowing. Comparison of the pre and post-earthquake geomorphology of the fault rupture also suggests that a subtle scarp or groove was present along much of the trace prior to the Darfield earthquake. Hydrogeology and well logs support a hypothesis of extended slip history and suggests that that the Selwyn River fan may be infilling a graben that has accumulated late Quaternary vertical slip of <30 m. Investigating fault behavior, geomorphic and sedimentary responses over a multitude of time-scales and at different study sites provides insights into fault interactions and orogenesis during single earthquakes and over millions of years of plate boundary deformation.
The National Recovery Coordinator for Red Cross Emergency Services in Australia, who has researched disaster recovery practices around the world including the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, London bombings and Sichuan earthquake. She is visiting New Zealand ahead of the first anniversary of the February earthquake in Christchurch.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "392 Oxford Terrace. This area has just been rezoned as red zone land. The owners of this house have suggested the land should be purple zoned, (where homeowners can choose whether to stay or leave) as their house is new and undamaged".
North Hagley Park, Christchurch, New Zealand. Tens of thousands turned out today to mark the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake that struck the city at 12.51pm on 22 February, 2011. 185 people lost their lives. file.stuff.co.nz/stuff/12-51/ Took 4 pa...
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Foundation stones the way Christchurch does them in 2012".
A photograph of a woman standing beside a cordon fence on Colombo Street in Sydenham.
Looking north from Worcester Street towards the recently-occupied Press building on Gloucester Street. In the background is the PricewaterhouseCoopers building.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "179-181 Victoria Street, Carlton Butchery".
Shows huge mosquitoes attacking a man. Context: It could be that there is a larger population of mosquitoes in Christchurch at the moment because of stagnant areas left by the earthquakes. And it could be that a new mosquito species may be causing Cantabrians to suffer bad reactions to bites. The species is known as the striped mosquito, or Aedes notscriptus. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
A review of the week's main news: sex offender slips through net to teach in a number of New Zealand schools, government says it's not to blame for spreading industrial unrest, Turangi teen sentenced to 10 years jail for raping five year old, Rena captain and navigational officer plead guilty to altering ship's documents, government targets sole parents, unemployed teens, widows and women alone in welfare reforms, Otago Rugby Union fights to stave off liquidation, government promising clampdown on mistreatment and underpayment of foreign crews working on fishing boats chartered to New Zealand companies, structural engineer breaks down at Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission and Bret McKenzie earns an Oscar for a Muppet of a song.
A digitally manipulated image of Michael Parekowhai's sculpture 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer' on Madras Street. The photographer comments, "This is the work of New Zealand artist Michael Parekowhai titled 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer'. There are two bronze pianos and a very dominant looking bronze bull on each".
Buckled columns on a house in Wainoni. The photographer comments, "A Sunday afternoon ride to New Brighton, then back via Aranui, Wainoni, Dallington, and Richmond. Not a cheerful experience. 'We've decided you're a repair, not a rebuild after all'. Actually, I think these houses might be red zoned".
A sign outside the Chinwag Eathai restaurant on Victoria Street reads "To all our valued customers. We are sorry to inform you as of Tuesday 17th January 2012 our building has been red stickered. Don't worry we will be back at a new location!! Yet to be confirmed".