Brendon has been in Christchurch for the past decade and he says his ‘professional career has been shaped by the earthquakes”, from the 2010 Darfield and 2011 Christchurch quakes to the 2016 Kaikōura quake. The base isolation system is not shown. As stated above, New Zealand is situated on one of the edges of the Pacific Ring of Fire. This shaking was significantly greater than the levels Christchurch's structures had been designed to withstand. All in all, this decade the bill for all the earthquake damage in the country will be roughly $50 billion NZD. Material on this page is offered under a The whole country was taken aback by the destructive power of that particular quake, even … This therefore provides essential opportunities for learning from practice and preparing for the future. That was typically when the outbursts of crying, hitting or other violence would erupt in Christchurch classrooms and playgrounds. Creative Commons license unless otherwise noted below. This is basically a massive area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean, which stretches around in a 40,000 km horseshoe. As terrible as that is, it pales when set against the 230,000 lives that were lost in the Indonesian Boxing Day tsunami. Afternoons were the worst. Every year there are 15,000 of the things rattling around in the basement of the earth under NZ – with about 150 of them being felt (that’s one every three days). However, when you stop to think about it, the answer to this enigma is simple. Another thing the government is doing, and something that is much harder to implement, is to make sure that all older buildings adhere to the same requirements. Experts predict earthquakes will continue to hit New Zealand’s second city for the next four years. Preparations increased after the earthquakes, particularly in Christchurch. However, prior to the two seismic events in September 2010 and February 2011, Canterbury Plains likely had not experienced a major earthquake in thousands of years. On February 22, 2011, residents of the then-second-largest city in New Zealand – Christchurch, located on the South Island's Canterbury Plains – were hit hard by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake. ... earthquakes. All in all, lessons have certainly be learned. Every year, thousands of earthquakes occur in New Zealand that are too small to be felt, although more serious quakes have occurred. The first and easiest solution to moderate risks is to make sure that newly erected buildings adhere to newly passed, stringent earthquake-proofing guidelines. Earthquake Preparedness in Christchurch, New Zealand, https://www.gns.cri.nz/Home/Learning/Science-Topics/Earthquakes, http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2011/02/new-zealand-earthquakes-linked,-say-experts/, http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/historic-earthquakes/page-13, Teaching Sustainability in an Interdisciplinary First-Year Seminar, Strengthening Geoscience Competency for HBCU Pre-Service Teachers Workshop, Pan-African Approaches to Teaching Geoscience, Putting Sustainability into Action workshop, Teaching about Soils as a Critical Resource: Materials and Activities for your Classroom, Expanding the Impact of InTeGrate Projects, Program-Scale InTeGrate Materials for 2YCs, Coastal Hazards, Risk, and Environmental Justice, Broadening Access to the Earth and Environmental Sciences, Engineering, Sustainability, and the Geosciences, Teaching Environmental Justice: Interdisciplinary Approaches, Geoscience and the 21st Century Workforce, Programs that Bring Together Geoscience and Sustainability, Systems, Society, Sustainability and the Geosciences, Adapting InTeGrate Modules for Biology Courses and Online Courses, Addressing Critical Issues in Your Community: Examples for Introductory Courses, Addressing Earthquake Hazards with Lidar, GPS, and InSAR in Upper-level Undergraduate Courses, Addressing Energy Sources and their Impact on the Environment, Addressing Landslide Hazards in Introductory Undergraduate Courses, Addressing Water Resources and Sustainability in Upper-level Undergraduate Courses, Assessing the Impact of InTeGrate Materials in Introductory Environmental Science and Botany Courses, Communicating Science to a Broad Audience: Social Media for You and Your Students, Connecting Earth Science and Sustainability to Teach the NGSS, Connecting Science to Issues of Justice in your Course, Context Diversity: A New Paradigm for Equity and Inclusion in Higher Education, Core Competencies for Sustainability Education Programs, Critical Zone Science: A transdisciplinary approach to environmental science, Designing Activities for Effective Online Teaching, Developing Graduate Students Teaching Capacity with InTeGrate Teaching Materials, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Earth and Environmental Sciences: Supporting the Success of All Students, Earth Education for a Sustainable Future: Supporting departments and programs through InTeGrate, Earth Education for Sustainable Societies, Engaging Environmental Justice in Geoscience Courses, Exploring ways to make the InTeGrate Mineral Resources module your own, Fostering Systems Thinking in Your Students, Helping your department or program to survive and thrive in the changing world of higher education, Improving Climate Literacy Through your Undergraduate Course, Incorporating Environmental Data-Driven Inquiry and Exploration in Your Course, Integrating Earth Literacy with Societal Issues, Integrating Energy, Earth and Environmental Education, Integrating GPS, SfM, and TLS into geoscience field courses, Integrating Hazards and Societal Impact into Your Course, Interdisciplinary Teaching and Sustainability, Interdisciplinary Teaching: Building Sustainability into your Non-Science Class, Introduction to InTeGrate: How to incorporate the classroom materials into your courses, Introductory Integrate-rich Physical Geology course, Lessons Learned from InTeGrate’s Materials Development Program and What Remains Undone, Moving sustainability forward through community partnerships, collaborative initiatives, and earth advocacy, Pathways to performance expectations using InTeGrate materials, Preparing Your Students for Environmental Careers, Students as Bridges between Disciplines and Across Campus for Sustainability, Supporting All Students Through Active Learning, Sustainable Solutions to Societal Issues AGU 2017, Sustainable solutions to societal issues: Teaching Earth literacy across the undergraduate curriculum, Sustaining Your Interdisciplinary Environmental and Sustainability Program: Opportunities and Resources, Teaching about the Critical Zone and the Changing Biosphere, Teaching Nanoscience in the Earth and Environmental Sciences, Teaching Sustainability and Environmental Justice in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Teaching the Impacts of Human Carbon Emissions on the Atmosphere, Oceans, and Economy, The Importance of Diversity and Equity in Supporting the Whole Student, Transforming Teacher Preparation to Teach for Sustainability, Understanding the Earth System and Key Societal Issues: High school teachers, Understanding the Earth System and Key Societal Issues: K-8 teachers, Using Data to Teach About Societally Important Questions, Using InTeGrate Materials in K-8 Teacher Preparation, Working with Diverse Students on Societally Relevant Geoscience Issues, Short URL: https://serc.carleton.edu/82144. A lot of it. Hopefully it’ll be a while until Kiwis have to see just how well. The main thing we do is look for evidence of active faulting. In the first 80 years of the city's history, four large earthquakes significantly damaged the growing settlement, one seriously. We asked Chief Executive Officer of Development Christchurch Limited (DCL) Rob Hall FRICS how the city is regenerating after the earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. If it was populated as densely as England, for example, then the results of quakes would be statistically very different. Photograph: David Wethey/EPA These were the seeds of what Smith hoped would become more of a … Disclaimer: Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this website are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. As an earthquake engineer the quakes provided opportunities close to home to study the mechanisms and aftermath of large earthquakes. To reiterate that point again, it’s New Zealand’s lack of population that makes its earthquakes less deadly than they might normally be. Rod continued with the learnings from this work and has developed, with engineering and planning colleagues, a process of anticipating planning needs and how our society could plan properly for future needs. The loss of life from earthquakes in New … ... enough to generate magnitude 7 or greater earthquakes. There are numerous other strategies that have been proposed and put into action since the last two big earthquakes in New Zealand – too many to list and explain here. For one, the proximity of the epicenter to the downtown area limited the amount of energy the quake dissipated before reaching Christchurch. There’s another price that is paid, too, of course, and that’s a financial one. Additional factors exacerbated the damage of the February 2011 earthquake. InTeGrate materials for your classroom. So, yes, with New Zealand sitting astride the Pacific Ring of Fire like a cat on a hot tin roof there’s going to be movement. And, the February 2011 quake brought down many structures that had been damaged the preceding September. The type of faulting and resultant shaking pattern was similar in some ways to the magnitude 5.8 and 5.9 earthquakes to hit Christchurch on December 23, 2011. As this small island nation picks up the pieces from the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that walloped its second-largest city, Christchurch, leaving scores dead … This area is notorious for a constant – and we mean ceaseless – stream of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and seismic shifting. Finally, at a whole different scale, we saw the quake and resulting tsunami ravage Japan in March, not to mention the 2010 earthquakes that leveled parts of China and Haiti. Minimize your movements to a few steps to a nearby safe place. After the Christchurch earthquake in 2011 the idea that earthquakes could be as lethal as that one turned out to be was really impressed on New Zealanders. If you are indoors, you should drop, cover, and hold—drop to the ground, find cover under a table or other sturdy piece of … The team study how earthquakes have interacted in the past to forecast what is likely to happen in the future, while also considering the unique geology and tectonic processes specific to New Zealand. This is because it sits plum on the Pacific Ring of Fire – unsurprisingly a volatile area. Earthquake survival kits. Yet only two people were killed in the more recent quake purely because Kaikoura has so few people compared to Christchurch, which is the biggest city in the South Island. Comparably, 300 lives are lost through traffic accidents each year, and around 120 through drowning. For an understanding of how much difference the location of an earthquake makes, let’s take another look at the 2011 Christchurch quake and the more recent Kaikoura quake in 2016. These are primarily aftershocks of the 6.3 earthquake on the 22nd of February 2011. The 2011 Christchurch earthquake was centered just outside this vibrant city on New Zealand's South Island causing mass devastation. How each household prepares for an earthquake varies; however, many homes are stocked with earthquake survival kits. The quake-damaged Christ Church Cathedral will be stabilised to protect it from future earthquakes, before work is done to restore the heritage building. Christchurch, New Zealand, was rocked by similarly destructive quakes and countless aftershocks in June. For one, the February 2011 earthquake the greatest increase after the earthquake was very similar to one. Can be taken to reduce the risk to lives and property in Christchurch to restore the heritage building to! 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