A damaged church hall. The brick walls have partially collapsed.
The roof of this collapsed building on Atlas Lane has fallen almost intact on top of the rubble. The photographer comments, "Whenever I go past this place it reminds me of a sinking ship".
The families of the victims of the CTV building collapse in Christchurch have told an engineering disciplinary hearing they've been waiting 12 years for accountability. The building collapsed in the February 2011 earthquake killing 115 people. It was designed by Dr Alan Reay's firm - Reay was criticised by the Earthquake Royal Commission for handing sole responsibility of it to an inexperienced employee. Reay has tried to stop the disciplinary process going ahead but it got underway in Christchurch today. Reporter Anna Sargent spoke to Charlotte Cook.
A digitally manipulated image of a damaged building. The photographer comments, "Part of Christchurch City is out of bounds for the public and is called the red zone".
An infographic showing a possible scenario for the CTV Building collapse.
A digger clearing rubble from the partially collapsed Piko Wholefoods building.
A damaged brick building, the side wall of which has collapsed.
A damaged brick building, the side wall of which has collapsed.
Predicting building collapse due to seismic motion is critical in design and more so after a major event. Damaged structures can appear sound, but collapse under following major events. There can thus be significant risk in decision making after a major seismic event concerning the safe occupation of a building or surrounding areas, versus the unknown impact of unknown major aftershocks. Model-based pushover analyses are effective if the structural properties are well understood, which is not valid post-event when this risk information is most useful. This research combines Hysteresis Loop Analysis (HLA) structural health monitoring (SHM) and Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) methods to determine collapse capacity and probability of collapse for a specific structure, at any time, a range of earthquake excitations to ensure robustness. The nonlinear dynamic analysis method presented enables constant updating of building performance predictions using post-event SHM results. The resulting combined methods provide near real-time updating of collapse fragility curves as events progress, quantifying the change of collapse probability or seismic induced losses for decision-making - a novel, higher resolution risk analysis than previously available. The methods are not computationally expensive and there is no requirement for a validated numerical model. Results show significant potential benefits and a clear evolution of risk. They also show clear need for extending SHM toward creating improved predictive models for analysis of subsequent events, where the Christchurch series of 2010-2011 had significant post-event aftershocks after each main event. Finally, the overall method is generalisable to any typical engineering demand parameter.
A video of an interview with Mark Yetton, Engineering Geologist at the Port Hills Geotech Group, about their work to assess the risk of rock fall and cliff collapse on the Christchurch Port Hills.
Survivors are gathering in Christchurch today to remember those who died in the devastating Christchurch earthquake of 2011. Of the 185 people who were killed, 115 died when the CTV building collapsed. Former CTV employee Tom Hawker watched his workplace collapse in front of him. He speaks to Susie Ferguson.
The historic Provincial Hotel at the Barbadoes Street / Cashel Street corner has been cordoned off for fear of collapse; aftermath of the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck Christchurch on Saturday 4 September 2010.
An infographic explaining a possible scenario for the collapse of CTV building.
A man standing in front of the partially collapsed Piko Wholefoods building.
A collapsed building on the corner of Linwood Avenue and Aldwins Road.
The cartoon's title is 'Life in the South Island'. A man wonders aloud to his wife when the 'plague of locusts' will arrive as they have had 'collapsing finance companies, earthquakes' and 'heavy snow damage'. Refers to the collapse of South Canterbury Finance, the earthquake of 4th September, and more recently, heavy snow in Southland that has caused roofs to collapse. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
People stand in front of a damaged house in New Brighton. The upper storey at the front of the house has collapsed onto the floor below. The photographer comments, "This house at 158 Marine Parade, New Brighton, Christchurch was owned by the man leaning on the fence. He lived next door and his daughter lived here. During the earthquake the 2nd storey stayed mainly whole, but the 1st collapsed. Luckily the daughter was in the top storey. She was rescued from the building by neighbours, by climbing out of the window and down a ladder. Another piece of luck is that most of the belongings were stored in boxes in the garage at the front. Though the garage also collapsed the boxes appear intact. The owner had tried to sell it previously without success".
A banner listing the 115 people who died in the CTV building collapse.
An infographic describing the collapse of the stairwell in the Forsyth Barr building.
An infographic describing the collapse of the stairwell in the Forsyth Barr building.
A graphic to accompany an article about survivors of the PGC building collapse.
An infographic to accompany an article about survivors of the PGC Building collapse.
A damaged house in St Martens, the roof of which has partially collapsed.
A banner listing the 18 people who died in the PGC building collapse.
A damaged concrete tilt-slab building. The slabs have separated and tilted, and are supported by steel bracing. The photographer comments, "This house in Christchurch was made by bolting 4 slabs of concrete together. A fantastic idea in a country prone to earthquakes".
A digitally manipulated image of a mannequin. The photographer comments, "During the Christchurch earthquake on 22 February 2011 a lot of people were seriously injured or killed because they run out of buildings. Falling masonry from the exterior of the buildings hit them, but if they had remained inside they would have probably been perfectly safe".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Earthquake in Christchurch. A house on stilts collapsed near Hororata".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Earthquake in Christchurch. A house on stilts collapsed near Hororata".
Damage to a commercial building. The brick parapets have collapsed, crushing the awning below.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Earthquake in Christchurch. A house on stilts collapsed near Hororata".