• Country: New Zealand, MEDC, Oceania

• Date & Time: 22nd February 2011 – 12:51pm

• New Zealand is located in the Pacific Ocean in the continent of Oceania. It’s aprox. 1,300 miles South East of Australia and consists of a North and South Island. The capital city is Wellington.

• Christchurch was 6km NW of epicentre.

• Earthquake’s duration: 10 seconds

The earthquake occurred on a conservative plate margin where the Pacific Plate slid past the Australian Plate in the opposite direction. It was technically an aftershock from a larger earthquake in 2010 but the impacts were more severe.

In New Zealand, the Australian and Pacific Plates push against each other along a curving boundary.

At the southern end of the South Island, the Australian Plate dives down (subducts) below the Pacific Plate whilst in the North Island the opposite situation occurs with the Pacific Plate being pushed under by the Australian Plate.

In between, through most of the South Island, the two plates grind past each other along the Alpine Fault.

Christchurch

Ground shaking• The ground was violently shaken and caused it to rise by up to 1 metre in

places.

Liquefaction• When the ground was shaken, the water was brought to the surface and

this made the ground very soft and everything from buildings to roads to cars and trees sunk into the ground. Sand boils were the most common type of liquefaction in this earthquake.

Slope failure• Part of the country’s longest glacier was broken off creating a large iceberg

(size of 20 football fields)• Significant landslides and rock falls in the Port Hills in the southern part of

Christchurch were reported.

Tsunami:• 3.5m (11ft) tsunami waves in Tasman Lake, following quake-triggered

glacier calving from Tasman Glacier.

Building/infrastructure failure• Many had been weakened by the 2010 earthquake and although many survived that

earthquake, they were destroyed by the 2011 earthquake. • All types of buildings were affected and even some modern earthquake-proof buildings

succumbed to the quake.

Fire• A collapsed building at King’s education in Christchurch had to be extinguished in order to

recue people trapped inside.

Water shortage/contamination• Water & sewage pipes were ruptured during the quake and this allowed them to mix and

contaminate the water. • As a result, lots of bottled water had to be supplied to people with no access to clean water.

Exposure/housing• Thousands of people had to move out of their homes as it was unsafe for them to stay as

their homes may have been weakened by the quake and could collapse in an aftershock.

There were no reports of famine or disease

Loss of social amenities e.g. schools

• The earthquake closed 419 early childhood education centres (ECEs), 215 primary and secondary schools in the Selwyn, Waimakariri, and Christchurch City school districts, and leading tertiary institutions including Canterbury and Lincoln Universities.

• Out of 161 school damage assessments, there was minor damage to 107 schools (affecting 31,074 students), medium damage to 35 (affecting 15,423 students), and major damage to 19 (affecting 9,695 students).

Increased social inequalities

• The Canterbury earthquakes struck at a time of deep social and economic vulnerability. As a country, New Zealand had experienced the highest growth of social inequality in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 20 years.

Change of risk perception

• The Structural Engineers Society of New Zealand has recommended that the 500-year elastic design spectrum for Christchurch be amplified by 136% for periods less than 1.5 sec, pending further research, to address the increased risk of M 6-6.5 events close to the CBD.

Search for blame

• Many people have blamed the Pacific Ring of Fire for the earthquake, however some people blamed the country’s gay and lesbian community for causing the quake due to their ‘amoral’ behaviour.

Effects on the strength of the community

• Community came together to attempt to rebuild the city and clear up the mess left behind from the earthquake. Volunteers helped clear up the silt left behind from liquefaction.

Costs of repairs to infrastructure

• $40billion worth of damage was needed to repair the infrastructure

Insurance costs

• It costs homeowners a small fraction of the sum insured, and provides protection of up to NZ$100,000 for a dwelling (building), NZ$20,000 for contents, and an amount for the land on which the dwelling is situated.

Losses to business/industry

• Christchurch could no longer host Rugby World Cup matches so lost the benefits of its income. The tourism industry also suffered as a result.

Losses to employment

• There were about 6,000 companies and/or institutions with over 50,000 employees in the CBD, or 25% of the total employment in the city. Of the 50,000 employees, 45% are in government, health care, or professions; these workers are likely to retain their jobs in another location. The other employees are in a variety of sectors including hotels, restaurants, retail, manufacturing, construction, wholesale, transport, communication, finance, insurance, and recreation; many in this group, especially those in tourism, will be unemployed.

Losses to international trade

• The number of guests to hotels in Christchurch fell by over 75% after the earthquake hit.

Number of deaths and injuries

• 181 people were killed and around 2,000 people were injured

– 80 people alone died when the Christchurch TV building collapsed.

Changes in population settlement patterns/densities

• After the earthquake, there was a sharp increase in the number of people who left Christchurch as well as a drop in the number of people arriving from outside the city.

Long and short-term migration

• In the short-term, people moved out of the city until the damage was repaired and then the majority of them moved back in. There were no significant long term impacts.

Hazard-resistant design (hint: consider existing and future buildings)• Damaged buildings had different coloured cards placed on them to indicate how damaged they were (Green:

Safe, through to Red: Unsafe, must be demolished).• Earthquake commission funds Geonet it also funds programs for people Quakesafe their homes• The AMI stadium has been reinforced by 10m stone columns which can stop liquefaction.

Development of the earthquake prediction systems• Geonet detects and monitors earthquakes can provide emergency services with info within a few minutes of

an earthquake.

Community education and preparedness• In New Zealand regular earthquake drills are carried out to ensure people know what to do. Plus all buildings

are made life safe ensure that they will not collapse in case of an earthquake. Any old buildings have been retrofitted to withstand future earthquakes.

Land-use planning• Homes are no longer being rebuilt in seismically dangerous zones. The government has instigated purchases of

both land and houses in high risk zones and works with insurance companies to accelerate safe recovery (Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, 2012).

Aid• St John’s ambulance had 16 ambulances operational within half an hour of the quake.• International aid was provided in the form of money (around $6-7 million) and aid workers.

Insurance• $898 million has been paid in building claims