A video of students at Banks Avenue School participating in the nationwide ShakeOut earthquake drill. The ShakeOut earthquake drill was held on 29 September 2012 to help people prepare for an earthquake. More than 1.3 million New Zealanders participated in 2012.
A box containing drilling cores from soil sampling. The photographer comments, "These are the samples from drilling near my home. As you can see they are not so much samples as sand piles. The drill in a nearby street went down 20m and it was sand all the way. This is the box of samples from the ground level to 4.6m deep".
Workers operate a drilling rig, sampling soil as part of EQC's geotechnical investigation of TC3 land. The photographer comments, "The work of getting 'soil' samples from all the areas marked as green/blue zones in Christchurch. These areas may be susceptible to liquefaction if a major earthquake occurs. The soil samples were a failure as all they found was sand".
Diggers on a demolition site on Kilmore Street. One is drilling into the ground.
Two volunteers in hard hats and high-visibility vests drilling holes in a pallet.
Two volunteers in hard hats and high-visibility vests drilling holes in a pallet.
A demolition vehicle drilling a hole in the side of a building on Victoria Street.
A demolition vehicle drilling a hole in the side of a building on Victoria Street.
A photograph captioned by Paul Corliss, "Port Hills Road factories, post drill and glue of cracks".
A photograph captioned by Paul Corliss, "Port Hills Road factories, post drill and glue of cracks".
A photograph captioned by Paul Corliss, "Port Hills Road factories, post drill and glue of cracks".
A photograph captioned by Paul Corliss, "Port Hills Road factories, post drill and glue of cracks".
A photograph captioned by Paul Corliss, "Port Hills Road factories, post drill and glue of cracks".
A photograph captioned by Paul Corliss, "Port Hills Road factories, post drill and glue of cracks".
A photograph captioned by Paul Corliss, "Port Hills Road factories, post drill and glue of cracks".
Workers operate a drilling rig inside a Terra Probe truck, which has been raised on jacks to make it stable. The photographer comments, "Another completely different company testing what is below the surface to determine what type of foundations new houses will need. This is in one the blue/green area of earthquake shaken Christchurch. Strangely this is 3 metres away from where the other testing was done".
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "A digger working up high on the Gallery Apartments, drilling holes in the concrete slabs".
A drilling rig on the south side of the Colombo Street Bridge. In the distance, the Victoria Apartments and Craigs building can be seen.
A story submitted by Debbie Brown-Smith to the QuakeStories website.
A story submitted by Serra Kilduff to the QuakeStories website.
Summary of oral history interview with Tracey Shewan about her experiences of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Summary of oral history interview with Lindsey James about her experiences of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Colombo Street looking south from Kilmore Street. Wire and concrete fencing has been used as a cordon. In the distance a drill and a crane can be seen, as well as the damaged tower of the Cathedral, the Forsyth Building and the BNZ Building.
Two workers inspect fuses placed in an embankment during reinforcement work. The photographer comments, "This is the reinforcing of an embankment in the port of Lyttelton, which partly collapsed in the Christchurch earthquakes. They are using the same equipment as used for blowing up rock faces to mend them".
The magnitude Mw 6.2 earthquake of February 22nd 2011 that struck beneath the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, caused widespread damage and was particularly destructive to the Central Business District (CBD). The shaking caused major damage, including collapses of structures, and initiated ground failure in the form of soil liquefaction and consequent effects such as sand boils, surface flooding, large differential settlements of buildings and lateral spreading of ground towards rivers were observed. A research project underway at the University of Canterbury to characterise the engineering behaviour of the soils in the region was influenced by this event to focus on the performance of the highly variable ground conditions in the CBD. This paper outlines the methodology of this research to characterise the key soil horizons that underlie the CBD that influenced the performance of important structures during the recent earthquakes, and will influence the performance of the rebuilt city centre under future events. The methodology follows post-earthquake reconnaissance in the central city, a desk study on ground conditions, site selection, mobilisation of a post-earthquake ground investigation incorporating the cone penetration test (CPT), borehole drilling, shear wave velocity profiling and Gel-push sampling followed by a programme of laboratory testing including monotonic and cyclic testing of the soils obtained in the investigation. The research is timely and aims to inform the impending rebuild, with appropriate information on the soils response to dynamic loading, and the influence this has on the performance of structures with various foundation forms.