Among the deformation features produced in Christchurch by the September 4th Darfield Earthquake were numerous and widespread “sand volcanoes”. Most of these structures occurred in urban settings and “erupted” through a hardened surface of concrete or tarseal, or soil. Sand volcanoes were also widespread in the Avon‐ Heathcote Estuary and offered an excellent opportunity to readily examine shallow subsurface profiles and as such the potential appearance of such structures in the rock record.
Damage to St John the Baptist Church in Latimer Square, where the tower has crumbled revealing the inner structure.
Damage to St John the Baptist Church in Latimer Square, where the tower has crumbled revealing the inner structure.
A sign on the fence at St John's Church in Hororata reads "Warning. Beware of fallen debris and unstable structures in cemetery".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Southern Cross Lodge, Kaiapoi. Front structure built in 1883, original lodge at the back built in 1860. Damaged by earthquake".
Civil Engineer Professor Jason Ingham discusses his extensive projects investigating seismic retrofit of structures in earthquake regions he's been to over the past 12 months, Indonesia, Chile and of course, Christchurch.
A demolition site on Welles Street, where the interior structures have been removed. View into the building site through the partial demolished exterior wall. A crane and demolition workers can be seen on site.
A demolition site on Welles Street, where the interior structures have been removed. View into the building site through the partial demolished exterior wall. A crane and demolition workers can be seen on site.
A demolition site on Welles Street, where the interior structures have been removed. View into the building site through the partial demolished exterior wall. A crane and demolition workers can be seen on site.
This paper presents the probabilistic seismic performance and loss assessment of an actual bridge– foundation–soil system, the Fitzgerald Avenue twin bridges in Christchurch, New Zealand. A two-dimensional finite element model of the longitudinal direction of the system is modelled using advanced soil and structural constitutive models. Ground motions at multiple levels of intensity are selected based on the seismic hazard deaggregation at the site. Based on rigorous examination of several deterministic analyses, engineering demand parameters (EDP’s), which capture the global and local demand, and consequent damage to the bridge and foundation are determined. A probabilistic seismic loss assessment of the structure considering both direct repair and loss of functionality consequences was performed to holistically assess the seismi risk of the system. It was found that the non-horizontal stratification of the soils, liquefaction, and soil–structure interaction had pronounced effects on the seismic demand distribution of the bridge components, of which the north abutment piles and central pier were critical in the systems seismic performance. The consequences due to loss of functionality of the bridge during repair were significantly larger than the direct repair costs, with over a 2% in 50 year probability of the total loss exceeding twice the book-value of the structure.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Owners of The Octagon hang models to decorate the structures holding up the tower of the building after earthquake damage. Chris Stead from Theme Pro".
A video about the Christchurch central city in the days after the 4 September 2010 earthquake. The video includes footage of empty streets, and New Zealand Police and Army members guarding the cordons. It also includes footage of engineers checking the safety of buildings.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Owners of the Octagon hang models to decorate the structures holding up the tower of the building after earthquake damage. Chris Stead (left) from Theme Pro and stone mason Andy Carmichael from Cut'n'Carve Stone".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Owners of the Octagon hang models to decorate the structures holding up the tower of the building after earthquake damage. Chris Stead (left) from Theme Pro and stone mason Andy Carmichael from Cut'n'Carve Stone".
Discusses the history, purpose and the structure of the organisation. Also provides links to regional branches, news, newsletters, rural jobs- a resource for prospective employers and employees and resources such as guides, reports and contract and agreement forms. Earthquake related information can be found in the archived instances from September 2010-
'Cappuccino dreams'. Christchurch mayoral candidates Jim Anderton and incumbent mayor Bob Parker tell constituents that they will get respectively more transparency in 'financial dealings' and in 't-shirts'. As the earthquake strikes they continue their electioneering until they are told to 'clear orf' because 'these frames lack substance'. A front-end loader begins to dismantle the structure from which they are speaking. Refers to the local body elections to take place 9th October and the Canterbury earthquake of 4th September. Published in the Presto Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
This paper presents site-specific and spatially-distributed ground-motion intensity estimates which have been utilized in the aftermath of the 2010-2011 Canterbury, New Zealand earthquakes. The methodology underpinning the ground motion intensity estimation makes use of both prediction models for ground motion intensity and its within-event spatial correlation. A key benefit of the methodology is that the estimated ground motion intensity at a given location is not a single value but a distribution of values. The distribution is comprised of both a mean and standard deviation, with the standard deviation being a function of the distance to nearby observations at strong motion stations. The methodology is illustrated for two applications. Firstly, maps of conditional peak ground acceleration (PGA) have been developed for the major events in the Canterbury earthquake sequence, which among other things, have been utilized for assessing liquefaction triggering susceptibility of land in residential areas. Secondly, the conditional distribution of response spectral ordinates is obtained at the location of the Canterbury Television building (CTV), which catastrophically collapsed in the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The conditional response spectra provide insight for the selection of ground motion records for use in forensic seismic response analyses of important structures at locations where direct recordings are absent.