A photograph of an earthquake-damaged suitcase in the South Quad of the Christchurch Arts Centre. The suitcase is resting on a pile of scaffolding which had been constructed around the Observatory tower. The scaffolding collapsed along with the tower during the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
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.
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.
A photograph of part of Mike Hewson's installation 'Homage to the Lost Spaces' on the earthquake-damaged Cranmer Courts building.
A pdf copy of a PowerPoint presentation prepared for the Ozwater 2013 conference detailing the story of the damage to, and subsequent repair of, Huntsbury Reservoir.
A photograph of an earthquake-damaged house in Christchurch. The bricks on the side of the house have crumbled and damaged the fence. A red sticker on the front window indicates that the building is unsafe to enter.
Working at getting things out of the Victoria Square before it is demolished. www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-20... What I found on my walk around the city January 15, 2014 Ch...
A photograph of an earthquake-damaged house in Christchurch. The walls on the side of the house have crumbled and the bricks have damaged the fence. A red sticker on the front window indicates that the building is unsafe to enter.
A photograph of members of the Dog Section of the New Zealand Police at the site of an earthquake-damaged building in central Christchurch.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to a house in Christchurch. The house has fallen off its foundations and is on a severe lean.
This has made a huge mess for the residents to clean up. I heard on the news that homes have been damaged by subsidence in areas of earthquake-caused liquefaction like this.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to Grenadier House on Madras Street. The glass windows have shattered and the section of wall between has buckled.
Ingham and Biggs were in Christchurch during the M6.3, 22 February 2011 earthquake and Moon arrived the next day. They were enlisted by officials to provide rapid assessment of buildings within the Central Business District (CBD). In addition, they were asked to: 1) provide a rapid assessment of the numbers and types of buildings that had been damaged, and 2) identify indicator buildings that represent classes of structures that can be used to monitor changing conditions for each class following continuing aftershocks and subsequent damage. This paper explains how transect methodology was incorporated into the rapid damage assessment that was performed 48 hours after the earthquake. Approximately 300 buildings were assessed using exterior Level 1 reporting techniques. That data was used to draw conclusions on the condition of the entire CBD of approximately 4400 buildings. In the context of a disaster investigation, a transect involves traveling a selected path assessing the condition of the buildings and documenting the class of each building, and using the results in conjunction with prior knowledge relating to the overall population of buildings affected in the area of the study. Read More: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/9780784412640.033
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the back of the Christchurch Chinese Methodist Church on Papanui Road. The brick wall has crumbled at the gable, exposing the wooden structure inside.
Damage to Christchurch city following the 22 February earthquake 2011. A crack in the road where the asphalt has lifted, possibly due to liquefaction. Cones have been placed along the crack to warn drivers of the irregular surface.
A photograph of a member of the Wellington Emergency Management Office Emergency Response Team standing in front of an earthquake-damaged building in central Christchurch.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to a residential road in Christchurch. Road cones have been placed around lifted man holes to warn road users.
A photograph of Mike Hewson's installation 'Homage to the Lost Spaces' being installed on plywood covering the earthquake-damaged Cranmer Courts building.
A photograph of Mike Hewson's installation 'Homage to the Lost Spaces' being installed on plywood covering the earthquake-damaged Cranmer Courts building.
A photograph of Mike Hewson's installation 'Homage to the Lost Spaces' being installed on plywood covering the earthquake-damaged Cranmer Courts building.
A photograph of Mike Hewson's installation 'Homage to the Lost Spaces' being installed on plywood covering the earthquake-damaged Cranmer Courts building.
A photograph of Mike Hewson's installation 'Homage to the Lost Spaces' being installed on plywood covering the earthquake-damaged Cranmer Courts building.
A photograph of the photocopy template for the Christchurch City Council's yellow sticker. The sticker was used by the Civil Defence after the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes to indicate that a building had been inspected and that structural damage or other safety hazards had been found. The sticker states that there should be no entry to the building, 'except on essential business'. It also states that 'earthquake aftershocks present danger' and that people who enter must do so at their own risk.
Forbes' Store on Norwich Quay with a broken awning and damage visible on the brick walls. Scaffolding placed around the building since the 4 September 2010 earthquake has tumbled during the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
As a result of the Canterbury earthquakes, over 60% of the concrete buildings in the Christchurch Central Business District have been demolished. This experience has highlighted the need to provide guidance on the residual capacity and repairability of earthquake-damaged concrete buildings. Experience from 2010 Chile indicates that it is possible to repair severely damaged concrete elements (see photo at right), although limited testing has been performed on such repaired components. The first phase of this project is focused on the performance of two lightly-reinforced concrete walls that are being repaired and re-tested after damage sustained during previous testing.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the back of the Canterbury Provincial Chambers, taken from Oxford Terrace across the Avon River.
A photograph of an earthquake damaged building in the Christchurch central city. Some of the windows have broken and have been covered with plastic and tape.
A photograph of a crane parked in front of the earthquake-damaged ChristChurch Cathedral. The tower of the Cathedral has been partially demolished and a pile of rubble is sitting in front.
A photograph of an earthquake-damaged cafe in Christchurch. The top of the brick wall has crumbled onto the pavement below, taking the veranda with it.
A photograph of an earthquake-damaged cafe in Christchurch. The top of the brick wall has crumbled onto the pavement below, taking the veranda with it.