A Closer Look to the Structural Damage in Christchurch

The recent visit of some members of the research group of Prof. G.Gazetas and Prof. E.Vintzileou (National Technical University of Athens) was the initiation of an effort to provide some explanations on several aspects of the Christchurch and Darfield earthquakes, following a multi-disciplinary approach,...

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Aftershock Sequence

Aftershocks in Canterbury have persisted since the 4 September 2010 M 7.1 event with 200 aftershocks greater than 4.0 and 15 greater than 5.0.   The period prior to 22/2/2011 contained fourteen events of magnitude 5.0 to 5.6 and forty events of magnitude 4.5 to 5.0. Since 22/2/2011 there have been...

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understanding the past

Friday was our last day in Christchurch. The government declared it a national holiday and held a memorial service in the CBD. We took a few hours to look at evidence of the Greendale Fault Rupture from the Darfield September 2010 Mw7.1 Earthquake. While the trace was still visible in many places and...

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rockfall and landslide photos

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earthquake impacts to rockfall risk management

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Retaining walls part 2

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Retaining wall performance

I spent today inspecting retaining walls and rockfalls in the suburbs of Lyttelton, Mount Pleasant, and Sumner.  The focus of this blog post is on retaining wall performance. Retaining walls in residential areas generally ranged from 1 to 4 meters high.  Wall types observed included: gravity rock and...

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earthquake induced slope instability

Today we ventured out east towards the hilly suburbs which suffered significant earthquake induced rockfall and landslides. The day started in the Geotechnical Coordination meeting where assessment teams provided updates on specific areas they were tasked to map. The significant coordination of this...

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floating underground car park

Yesterday morning involved continued assistance to the Christchurch City Council building inspection program. An interesting change to the building inspections included EERI’s  multidisciplinary team providing both geotechnical and structural assessment to a footbridge critical to access for the...

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Geotechnical observations from Tim Mote

Images from team member Tm Mote, an engineering geologist from ARUP. #gallery-6 { margin: auto; } #gallery-6 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-6 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-6 .gallery-caption...

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