A story submitted by Sarah to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Barry Ramsay to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Kate Bennett to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Anna Cotterrell to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Kathryn to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Kerri to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Maureen Wootton to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Bill Thew to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Francis Ganderton to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Anonymous to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Lucinda to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Allie to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Marian Parkin to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Lisa Gibson to the QuakeStories website.
Following the devastating 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, buildings in Napier and surrounding areas in the Hawke's Bay region were rebuilt in a comparatively homogenous structural and architectural style comprising the region's famous Art Deco stock. These interwar buildings are most often composed of reinforced concrete two-way space frames, and although they have comparatively ductile detailing for their date of construction, are often expected to be brittle, earthquake-prone buildings in preliminary seismic assessments. Furthermore, the likelihood of global collapse of an RC building during a design-level earthquake became an issue warranting particular attention following the collapse of multiple RC buildings in the February 22, 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Those who value the architectural heritage and future use of these iconic Art Deco buildings - including building owners, tenants, and city officials, among others - must consider how they can be best preserved and utilized functionally given the especially pressing implications of relevant safety, regulatory, and economic factors. This study was intended to provide information on the seismic hazard, geometric weaknesses, collapse hazards, material properties, structural detailing, empirically based vulnerability, and recommended analysis approaches particular to Art Deco buildings in Hawke's Bay as a resource for professional structural engineers tasked with seismic assessments and retrofit designs for these buildings. The observed satisfactory performance of similar low-rise, ostensibly brittle RC buildings in other earthquakes and the examination of the structural redundancy and expected column drift capacities in these buildings, led to the conclusion that the seismic capacity of these buildings is generally underrated in simple, force-based assessments.
Topics - scientists are wondering how the light gets out. Maybe there is a cosmic crack in everything, because in the Journal Astrophysical Letters it is noted that there is a huge deficit of light in the universe. Owners of heritage apartments in Auckland face becoming "impoverished" according to a high-profile real estate figure, because of new laws around earthquake strengthening. Martin Dunn of City Sales says the Building Amendment Bill is "overkill". He says those trying to sell heritage apartments are having a difficult time because of the new rules. Jim Anderton, has again raised the issue of whether the Christchurch Cathedral has to come down.
A digitally manipulated image of 'Save Our Cathedral' ribbons hanging from a cordon fence near Latimer Square.
The "Lyttelton Harbour Review" newsletter for 27 May 2013, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 6 August 2012, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
A copy of the CanCERN online newsletter published on 16 December 2011
Transcript of participant number LY193's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
This thesis describes the strategies for earthquake strengthening vintage clay bricks unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings. URM buildings are well known to be vulnerable to damage from earthquake-induced lateral forces that may result in partial or full building collapse. The 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes are the most recent destructive natural disaster that resulted in the deaths of 185 people. The earthquake events had drawn people’s attention when URM failure and collapse caused about 39 of the fatality. Despite the poor performance of URM buildings during the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes, a number of successful case study buildings were identified and their details research in-depth. In order to discover the successful seismic retrofitting techniques, two case studies of retrofitted historical buildings located in Christchurch, New Zealand i.e. Orion’s URM substations and an iconic Heritage Hotel (aka Old Government Building) was conducted by investigating and evaluating the earthquake performance of the seismic retrofitting technique applied on the buildings prior to the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes and their performance after the earthquakes sequence. The second part of the research reported in this thesis was directed with the primary aim of developing a cost-effective seismic retrofitting technique with minimal interference to the vintage clay-bricks URM buildings. Two retrofitting techniques, (i) near-surface mounted steel wire rope (NSM-SWR) with further investigation on URM wallettes to get deeper understanding the URM in-plane behaviour, and (ii) FRP anchor are reported in this research thesis.
The Earthquake Commission (EQC) criticised for misleading and inadequate measurements on housing foundations when assessing damage to Canterbury homes; Wellington historic building champions vow to save heritage structure in the capital; the spread of didymo in Fiordland; Defence Force sentencing today after drowning last year; the censorship of Maniac, arty audiences only please, and; the PM changes tack on working with NZ First.
A photograph submitted by Matt Pickering to the QuakeStories website. The description reads, "The army on hand, helping prepare for the demolition of the Strategy Building".
A story submitted by Alasdair Wright to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Brenda Greene to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Brenda Greene to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Archie Thomson to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Ricki hinch to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Jane McCulla to the QuakeStories website.