Case Study for Earthquakes: Christchurch

Christchurch

The earthquake occured at 12:51pm on the 22nd February 2011 with a registered 6.3 on the Richter scale.

Why did Christchurch have the impacts it had?

Why there was so much damage:

• older buildings weren't built to be safe
• happened lunchtime on a weekday, Central Business District (CBD) was very busy
• earlier earthquake (September 2010) had weakened the buildings
• liquifaction weakened the bases of buildings
• there were lots of aftershocks

Why was there so little damage?

• building codes - money had been spent to make new buildings safe
• it was lunchtime, lots of people were out getting food rather than in busy buildings
• people were used to and prepared for an earthquake

There was a low loss…