Christchurch

• Date and time of day of the Christchurch Earthquake

  Lunchtime on 22nd February 2011
• Population of Christchurch New Zealand


  Christchurch had a population of approximately 400,000.
• What did the earthquake measure on the Richter scale?


  6.3 on the Richter scale
• What fault lines did the Christchurch earthquake occur on?


  It took place on the Alpine fault which is a conservative plate boundary at South Island running between the Indo-Australian plate and the Pacific plate.

  At North Island the Pacific plate subducts under the Indo-Australian plate at a destructive plate margin. This fault line was previously unknown and is thought to run directly under Christchurch.

  The earthquake resulted in a 50cm displacement of the plates.
• Describe the location of the focus of the earthquake

  The earthquake had a shallow focus of 5 km and was 10 km away from Christchurch.
• What had made Christchurch's infrastructure vulnerable to this earthquake?


  Buildings had been weakened by a previous earthquake in 2010 which measured 7.1 on the Richter scale but which caused little damage at the time.
• Describe the aftershocks

  There were nearly 400 aftershocks in the following week, the largest of which took place 2 hours after the earthquake and had a magnitude of 5.9.
• Economic effects of the Christchurch earthquake

  •$3 billion estimated damage cost.

  •Rebuilding work will cost insurers an estimated NZ$20-30 billion making it New Zealand's costliest disaster ever.
• Social effects of the Christchurch earthquake (p1)

  • 185 people died, making this New Zealand's second deadliest disaster.

  •Most of the deaths were in the Canterbury Television (CTV) building which collapsed and caught fire, resulted in 115 deaths.

  •Over 7,100 people were injured and 200 people suffered acute trauma. Estimated that between 6600 and 6800 people were treated for minor injuries.
• Social effects of the Christchurch earthquake (p2)

  •80% of the city had no power at 5pm on the day of earthquake

  •Water and wastewater services were disrupted in the city, some are likely to take many years to repair.

  •Many cars and 2 buses were crushed by falling debris.

  •Christchurch Cathedral lost its spire. Christchurch replaced their destroyed cathedral with a cardboard alternative.

  •Christchurch lost economic revenue as they could no longer host rugby world cup matches

  •Mass homelessness anticipated as 10,000 homes may have to be demolished.
• Social effects of Christchurch earthquake (p3)

  
  

  •The national census planned for 8th March 2011 was cancelled due to the disruption and displacement of people in the Canterbury region and the damage sustained by Statistics New Zealand's buildings in Christchurch, which was scheduled to process much of the census.

  •Doctors are reporting a significant increase in the number of people suffering from mental health problems such as anxiety.

  •43 schools suffered moderate to serious damage.
• Social effects of Christchurch earthquake (p4)

  •building codes in New Zealand are heavily enforced, but many old buildings in Christchurch weren't built in line with these. Houses built in or before the early 20th century disintegrated rapidly, as did those which were built on concrete pads in areas near to stream and waterways, due to liquefaction of soils.

  •Christchurch International Airport suffered some disruption, but was operational relatively quickly. Air traffic control was out of action for several hours, which had knock-on effects for air travel over much of the country.
• Environmental effects (p1)

  •The earthquake caused liquefaction of the ground (when solid ground is shaken so much that water rises quickly up and turns the ground into a liquid state). This caused:

  -400,000 tonnes of silt to be produced in the Eastern suburbs.

  -The Prime Minister to declare that the damage caused by liquefaction meant that some areas could no longer be built upon.

  -Rivers to alter their course.
• Environmental effects (p2)

  •The earthquake caused a 30 million tonne chunk of ice to break off the Tasman Glacier (in a process caused glacier calving), into the Tasman Lake. This created a 3.5 m wave which hit a tourist boat, 200 km away on the west coast of South Island.

  •Landslides, especially around the nearby town of Lyttelton.
• Immediate responses (p1)

  •Damage to roads and bridges disrupted rescue efforts.

  •Christchurch Hospital was partly evacuated due to damage in some areas but remained open throughout to treat the injured.

  •The military were deployed to help the rescue effort.

  •The New Zealand Fire Service coordinated search and rescue, particularly the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams from New Zealand and Australia, UK, USA, Japan, Taiwan, China and Singapore. It was made up of 150 people from New Zealand and 429 from overseas.
• Immediate responses (p2)


  •A team of 72 urban search and rescue specialists from New South Wales, Australia was sent to Christchurch by helicopter, arriving 12 hours after the quake.

  •Helicopters were used to rescue survivors from rooftops and to put out fires.

  •Neighbourhood Support staff worked closely with Civil Defense staff to coordinate 2,000 volunteers across the city to gather information from the badly affected areas.

  •Due to the disruption of water and wastewater services the authorities urged residents to conserve water and collect rainwater.
• Immediate responses (p3)


  •The New Zealand Red Cross launched an appeal to raise funds to help victims.

  •Australia pledged A$5 million to the Red Cross appeal and a further A$1 million was donated by the New South Wales government on 1st March.

  •China gave US$ 500,000 to the earthquake appeal.

  •Foo Fighters played a charity gig to raise money for the Christchurch earthquake appeal.

  •The New Zealand All Blacks rugby team and various actors raised more than US $500,000.
• Long term responses (p1)

  •By 3rd March of the 3,000 buildings inspected within the Four Avenues of the central city, 45% had been given red or yellow stickers to restrict access due to safety problems. Many heritage buildings were given red stickers after inspections. 1000 of the 4000 buildings within the Four Avenues were expected to be demolished.

  •On 7 March, the prime minister said that around 10,000 houses in the suburbs would need to be demolished, and liquefaction damage meant that some parts of Christchurch could not be rebuilt on.
• long term responses(p2)

  •On 14th March, the prime minister announced a Royal Commission of Inquiry would be held into the earthquake devastation complementing the investigations by the Department of Building and Housing

  •Orion, Christchurch's electricity distribution lines company, assisted by other lines companies from New Zealand, worked constantly to restore power. This included the erection of a new overhead line between Bromley and New Brighton to get power into the eastern suburbs. Such a project would usually take six or seven weeks but was completed in 2½ days.
• long term responses (p3)


  •Power restored to 82% households within five days, and to 95% within two weeks.

  •Mains water supply was re-established to 70% households in one week.

  •Thousands of people helped with the clean-up efforts - involving the removal of over 200,000 tonnes of liquefaction silt.

  •450 temporary mobile homes as responses to 10,000 damaged homes
• long term responses (p4)

  •Department of Housing planned the construction of 500 new homes.

  •Work began on rebuilding several roads destroyed in the earthquakes

  •Red Cross provided grants to families with children under 5 years who were living in significantly damaged homes to help with electricity bills.
• Immediate responses (p4)


  •On 2nd March, value of new zealand dollar dropped after prime minister said he expected to cut interest rates as a method to deal with earthquake effects