The M7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake in 2016 presented a number of challenges to science agencies and institutions throughout New Zealand. The earthquake was complex, with 21 faults rupturing throughout the North Canterbury and Marlborough landscape, generating a localised seven metre tsunami and triggering thousands of landslides. With many areas isolated as a result, it presented science teams with logistical challenges as well as the need to coordinate efforts across institutional and disciplinary boundaries. Many research disciplines, from engineering and geophysics to social science, were heavily involved in the response. Coordinating these disciplines and institutions required significant effort to assist New Zealand during its most complex earthquake yet recorded. This paper explores that effort and acknowledges the successes and lessons learned by the teams involved.
We present preliminary observations on three waters impacts from the Mw7.8 14th November 2016 Kaikōura Earthquake on wider metropolitan Wellington, urban and rural Marlborough, and in Kaikōura township. Three waters systems in these areas experienced widespread and significant transient ground deformation in response to seismic shaking, with localised permanent ground deformation via liquefaction and lateral spreading. In Wellington, potable water quality was impacted temporarily by increased turbidity, and significant water losses occurred due to damaged pipes at the port. The Seaview and Porirua wastewater treatment plants sustained damage to clarifier tanks from water seiching, and increased water infiltration to the wastewater system occurred. Most failure modes in urban Marlborough were similar to the 2010-2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence; however some rural water tanks experienced rotational and translational movements, highlighting importance of flexible pipe connections. In Kaikōura, damage to reservoirs and pipes led to loss of water supply and compromised firefighting capability. Wastewater damage led to environmental contamination, and necessitated restrictions on greywater entry into the system to minimise flows. Damage to these systems necessitated the importation of tankered and bottled water, boil water notices and chlorination of the system, and importation of portaloos and chemical toilets. Stormwater infrastructure such as road drainage channels was also damaged, which could compromise condition of underlying road materials. Good operational asset management practices (current and accurate information, renewals, appreciation of criticality, good system knowledge and practical contingency plans) helped improve system resilience, and having robust emergency management centres and accurate Geographic Information System data allowed effective response coordination. Minimal damage to the wider built environment facilitated system inspections. Note Future research will include detailed geospatial assessments of seismic demand on these systems and attendant modes of failure, levels of service restoration, and collaborative development of resilience measures.
Decision making on the reinstatement of the Christchurch sewer system after the Canterbury (New Zealand) earthquake sequence in 2010–2011 relied strongly on damage data, in particular closed circuit television (CCTV). This paper documents that process and considers how data can influence decision making. Data are analyzed on 33,000 pipes and 13,000 repairs and renewals. The primary findings are that (1) there should be a threshold of damage per pipe set to make efficient use of CCTV; (2) for those who are estimating potential damage, care must be taken in direct use of repair data without an understanding of the actual damage modes; and (3) a strong correlation was found between the ratio of faults to repairs per pipe and the estimated peak ground velocity. Taken together, the results provide evidence of the extra benefit that damage data can provide over repair data for wastewater networks and may help guide others in the development of appropriate strategies for data collection and wastewater pipe decisions after disasters.
This paper presents on-going challenges in the present paradigm shift of earthquakeinduced ground motion prediction from empirical to physics-based simulation methods. The 2010-2011 Canterbury and 2016 Kaikoura earthquakes are used to illustrate the predictive potential of the different methods. On-going efforts on simulation validation and theoretical developments are then presented, as well as the demands associated with the need for explicit consideration of modelling uncertainties. Finally, discussion is also given to the tools and databases needed for the efficient utilization of simulated ground motions both in specific engineering projects as well as for near-real-time impact assessment.
A review of the week's news including... a major health alert in Pukekohe after two and a half thousand children were exposed to contaminated water, the Prime Minister kicks off election year with a pledge to spend more than half a billion dollar on crime-fighting, is New Zealand citizenship for sale? several former employees of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority are being investigated, international Indian students to be deported, more alleged mistreatment of animals revealed at another New Zealand rodeo event, a women's sexual abuse group says the judge got it wrong when he ruled in favour of a man who posted photos of his half naked wife on Facebook, people increasingly find ways to get around petrol prices that they think are too high, should an unofficial white chair memorial to the victims of the 2011 Christchurch quake be moved? the scientific test results which reveal exactly how Havelock North's drinking water supply was contaminated, the Maori Party backs calls from a group of local councils campaigning to keep their regions free from genetic modification, a film producer is caught out by a recent law change banning anyone travelling from America from entering New Zealand with medicinal cannabis and an update on a seriously unwell albatross chick.
Work has finally begun dismantling Lancaster Park in Christchurch, six years after it was damaged beyond repair in the February earthquake. It comes at the same time the city's leaders debate what a new stadium could look like and who will pay.
Queenstown and Christchurch are twin poles of New Zealand's landscape of risk. As the country's 'adventure capital', Queenstown is a spectacular landscape in which risk is a commodity. Christchurch's landscape is also risky, ruptured by earthquakes, tentatively rebuilding. As a far-flung group of tiny islands in a vast ocean, New Zealand is the poster-child of the sublime. Queenstown and Christchurch tell two different, yet complementary, stories about the sublime. Christchurch and Queenstown are vehicles for exploring the 21st-century sublime, for reflecting on its expansive influence on shaping cultural landscapes. Christchurch and Queenstown stretch and challenge the sublime's influence on the designed landscape. Circling the paradoxes of risk and safety, suffering and pleasure, the sublime feeds an infinite appetite for fear as entertainment, and at the same time calls for an empathetic caring for a broken landscape and its residents.
Surface rupture and slip from the Mw 7.8 2016 Kaikōura Earthquake have been mapped in the region between the Leader and Charwell rivers using field mapping and LiDAR data. The eastern Humps, north Leader and Conway-Charwell faults ruptured the ground surface in the study area. The E-NE striking ‘The Humps’ Fault runs along the base of the Mt Stewart range front, appears to dip steeply NW and intersects the NNW-NNE Leader Fault which itself terminates northwards at the NE striking Conway-Charwell Fault. The eastern Humps Fault is up to the NW and accommodates oblique slip with reverse and right lateral displacement. Net slip on ‘The Humps’ Fault is ≤4 m and produced ≤4 m uplift of the Mt Stewart range during the earthquake. The Leader Fault strikes NNW-NNE with dips ranging from ~10° west to 80° east and accommodated ≤4 m net slip comprising left-lateral and up-to-the-west vertical displacement. Like the Humps west of the study area, surface-rupture of the Leader Fault occurred on multiple strands. The complexity of rupture on the Leader Fault is in part due to the occurrence of bedding-parallel slip within the Cretaceous-Cenozoic sequence. Although the Mt Stewart range front is bounded by ‘The Humps’ Fault, in the study area neither this fault nor the Leader Fault were known to have been active before the earthquake. Fieldwork and trenching investigations are ongoing to characterise the geometry, kinematics and paleoseismic history of the mapped active faults.
Built in June 1917, the popular 'Sign of the Kiwi' heritage building in Christchurch's Port Hills has re-opened today after being closed for six years due to earthquake damage.
The Christchurch earthquakes caused devastating damage to many of the city’s creative spaces. But rising from the rubble has been the Isaac Theatre Royal under the watchful eye of Neil Cox. He’s directed the resurrection of one of the premiere performance spaces in the country.
A woman crushed to within milimetres of her life in the Christchurch earthquake says it is murderously cavalier for Wellington's council not to cordon off weak or prone buildings.
People have been queuing for days for the Bruce Springsteen concert in Christchurch tonight, ahead of the sixth anniversary of the 2011 earthquake. Glenn McCartney is at the front of the queue.
A memorial for the 185 people who died in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake will be blessed tonight, ahead of the unveiling tomorrow, on the sixth anniversary.
Some Bruce Springsteen fans have queued for days ahead of the Boss' show in Christchurch tomorrow night - on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the 2011 earthquake.
The Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial was unveiled to the public at a memorial attended by more than 3000 people.
Rachel Conley's family has flown to Christchurch for the first time for the unveiling of the memorial wall. They are staying with a NZ family, whose son died along with Rachel in the earthquake.
Christchurch woman Pam Sharpe has endured earthquakes, fires and dealing with insurance companies, but then she received a parking ticket. She tells Checkpoint what happened next.
Christchurch councillor Raf Manji announces plans to stand against Earthquake Minister Gerry Brownlee in Ilam at the general election. He tells John Campbell why he is standing as an independent.
Thirty properties are unlivable while another 170 have restricted access following the Kaikoura earthquake last year. RNZ reporter Conan Young reports from a town meeting.
Many farmers' homes have been red-stickered after the Kaikoura earthquake, but they say they can't leave because their farms aren't just their homes, they're their livelihoods
More than five people have died on crashes on SH1 between Picton and Christchurch since it became a main arterial route following the Kaikoura earthquake.
Two former Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority officials attempted to use their positions for their own financial gain and their actions will now be referred to the Serious Fraud Office.
Medium-density fibreboard has been sitting at an old rubbish put in Wigram since the earthquakes and residents are worried it's harming their health.
Dr Sue Bagshaw, the head of a youth health clinic Christchurch, fears the high rates of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among children will skyrocket due to the earthquake.
The Ministry of Education has been forced to apologise for its flawed handling of school closures and mergers after the 2011 Canterbury earthquake.
For the first time in six years, music has filled Christchurch's Town Hall, which suffered significant damage in the February 2011 earthquake.
A Christchurch family have found themselves stuck with a house that is too unsafe to live in after a fire revealed earthquake damage, which EQC admits it failed to identify.
A temporary village has opened in the small Canterbury town of Waiau to help residents who lost their homes in the Kaikoura earthquake.
The former Earthquake Recovery Minister's decision to exclude uninsured Canterbury landowners under the Recovery Plan was unlawful, the Court of Appeal has ruled in an interim judgement.
The quake outcasts, who were uninsured at the time, will receive 80 percent of the pre-earthquake value of their homes. Three of them tell John Campbell how they've been living in limbo.