Canterbury), New Zealand Earthquake of September 4, 2010
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EERI Special Earthquake Report — November 2010 Learning from Earthquakes The Mw 7.1 Darfield (Canterbury), New Zealand Earthquake of September 4, 2010 From September 8th to 20th, 2010, at 4:36 am, as well as to the moder- magnitude at 7.1 with a predomi- a team organized by the Earth- ate level of shaking in the most popu- nantly strike-slip focal mechanism quake Engineering Research Insti- lated areas of the Canterbury region. having a right-lateral focal plane tute (EERI) and the Pacific Earth- New Zealand also benefits from a striking east-west. However, more quake Engineering Research modern structural code and rigorous detailed and ongoing analysis has (PEER) Center investigated the code enforcement. Regional planning revealed a strong reverse faulting effects of the Darfield earthquake. had been undertaken to reduce criti- component to the mainshock. The team was led by Mary Comerio, cal infrastructure and lifelines vulner- The surface rupture spans nearly UC Berkeley, and included Lucy ability to natural hazards about 15 30 km and consists of fault scarps Arendt, University of Wisconsin, years ago (Centre for Advanced Engi- that locally exceed 4 m of right- Green Bay; Michel Bruneau, Uni- neering, 1997), with improvements in lateral and about 1 m of vertical versity of Buffalo, New York; local government and utilities pre- dislocation of the ground surface. Peter Dusicka, Portland State Uni- paredness, as well as the retrofitting In most places along and near the versity; Henri Gavin, Duke Univer- of bridges and other lifeline facilities. fault, the ground surface on the sity; Charles Roeder, University of Christchurch is the largest city on the south side has been raised relative Washington; and Fred Turner, Cali- South Island of New Zealand, and to the north side. Ongoing geodetic fornia Seismic Safety Commission. the country's second-largest urban surveys, including LiDAR and Additionally, individuals sponsored area, with a population of 375,000. InSAR surveys, are measuring by their organizations, or already in While New Zealand has strict seismic these deformations in greater de- New Zealand, joined the team: Tao building codes for new construction, tail. Surface rupture extends west Lai, AIR Worldwide Corporation; Christchurch was not considered a from the town of Rolleston to just Rob Williams and Oliver Boyd, US high-risk area and had a passive ret- southwest of Greendale and then Geological Survey; Myrto Anagnos- rofit policy for its unreinforced mason- trends northwest. In the two-week topoulou, University of Buffalo; and ry buildings. The damage to nonretro- period following the earthquake, William Holmes, Rutherford and fitted URM buildings from the moder- there were over 550 aftershocks Chekene, LFE Program Manager. ate shaking is an important object greater than or equal to magnitude Thomas O’Rourke of Cornell Uni- lesson for other regions with versity visited Christchurch the week large inventories of URM of October 11th. buildings. Unprecedented The research, publication and distri- residential losses due to liq- bution of this report were funded by uefaction and lateral spread- the Earthquake Engineering Re- ing represent a considerable search Institute Learning from portion of the total losses, Earthquakes project, under grant # estimated at $4 billion NZ CMMI-0758529 from the National ($3 billion US). Even for Science Foundation. buildings that performed well structurally, there was exten- Introduction sive nonstructural damage to both building components In the early hours of Saturday and contents. morning on September 4, 2010, people in Christchurch and the sur- rounding Canterbury region were Seismicity jolted awake by the most damaging The earthquake nucleated earthquake in New Zealand since about 10 km below a flat- the deadly M7.8 Hawke's Bay lying agricultural area called (Napier) earthquake in 1931. This the Canterbury Plains, 40 km time there was no loss of life and west of Christchurch, near only two serious injuries. The low the town of Darfield (Figure 1). casualties can be attributed in part GeoNet (http://www.geonet. Figure 1. Location of epicenter and shaking to the time of the M7.1 earthquake org.nz) estimated the moment intensity by city size (source: USGS) 1 EERI Special Earthquake Report — November 2010 acceleration at this site ties (Figure 3), causing extensive averaged 0.74 g. The five damage to buried utilities (water sites closest to the surface and wastewater pipelines), resi- rupture (all within about 5 dential housing, and other build- km) had vertical ground ing structures. To a lesser extent, accelerations greater than roads, railroad embankments, and 0.7 g and ratios of vertical levees were also affected. Accord- to horizontal acceleration ing to a 2004 liquefaction suscep- greater than 1.5 — in spite tibility study in Christchurch, ap- of four times more hori- proximately 50% of Christchurch zontal offset than vertical residential areas are vulnerable to along the surface rupture. liquefaction (Environment Can- The ratio of vertical to hori- terbury, 2004). Between 5% and zontal ground acceleration 10% of residential properties in the decreases steadily moving Christchurch area were actually away from the surface affected by liquefaction. Strong motion stations, fault rupture rupture. The station at Figure 2. The Christchurch and Waimakariri (red line) and aftershocks (green circles). Gray Kaiapoi (about 40 km east- Districts, and to a lesser extent the area is the metropolitan area of Christchurch northeast of the epicenter) Selwyn District, all had damage to (source: USGS) is anomalous compared to pipeline networks that resulted in the other stations in that it the loss of service and discharge exhibits very low vertical peak ground 3, including nine greater than M of untreated wastewater into the acceleration (0.09 g) relative to the 5.0. The largest aftershock was an groundwater and surface water. horizontal (~0.33 g). Charles Clifton M 5.6 about 20 minutes after the In all three districts, drinking water (2010) of the University of Auckland main shock. The aftershocks dis- is untreated well water. Most reported that ground accelerations in close a roughly 60 km long east- water mains are asbestos-cement Christchurch were about 70% of the west rupture plane just south of the pipelines, with newer pipelines design values for periods less than epicenter. composed of polyvinyl chloride. 1.5 s, and 100% of the design values Wastewater pipelines in Christ- The earthquake was located on an at longer periods. Farther west, closer church are predominantly rein- unmapped fault that may not have to the rupture, ground accelerations forced concrete conduits. ruptured in the last 16,000 years, exceeded design values at all periods. as evidenced by previously undis- Christchurch City Council (CCC) turbed Pleistocene gravels (GNS Geotechnical Effects and officials estimate that approximately Science, 2010). Prior to this earth- Lifelines 25 km of potable water and 70 km quake, much of the seismic hazard of wastewater pipelines will have in the region was ascribed to the Liquefaction and lateral spreading to be replaced in areas of liquefac- Alpine fault, a major northeast strik- were pervasive in portions of Christ- tion and lateral spreading. Outside ing right-lateral strike-slip fault that church and neighboring communi- separates the Pacific and Australian plates and lies about 100 km northwest of the Darfield earthquake. Very strong ground mo- tions were recorded by strong motion seismom- eters near the rupture. Maximum felt intensities reached VIII (Figure 2). Maximum vertical peak ground acceleration at Greendale (located Figure 3. Structures damaged by lateral spreading about 1 km north of the and post-liquefaction differential settlement. fault scarp) was 1.26 g. (a) Residential structure in Spencerville; (b) Horizontal peak ground St. Paul's Church in Dallington (photo: Green). 2 EERI Special Earthquake Report — November 2010 the areas of liquefaction, there pipelines and 10 km of storm lines in River in New Brighton as well as in were approximately 280 locations Kaiapoi were severely disrupted in an area of liquefaction adjacent to of damage in water pipelines that areas of liquefaction and lateral spread- Hagley Park. were repaired within 6 days of the ing. The biggest problems were to the By far one of the greatest impacts earthquake. Liquefied sand and deep gravity wastewater mains, in of this earthquake on the residents water entered sewer lines though many cases 3-4 m below the ground in the Canterbury region was the breaks and separations in the pipe, surface. With ground water only 2 m lateral spreading and post-lique- and cleaning the sand from waste- deep, trenching was difficult. In addi- faction differential settlement that water conduits and pump stations tion, some mains are located in the damaged numerous residential and slowed service restoration. Further- backyards of private residences, other structures (Figure 5). Particu- more, CCC officials expressed con- making access and subsequent larly hard hit were the Christchurch cern about voids that developed be- repairs more difficult. neighborhoods of Dallington, Avon- neath pavements due to the esti- The large vertical movements due side, and Bexley, outlying neighbor- mated 11,000 tons of sand removed to liquefaction caused low points in hood of Halswell (southwest of from pipes and pump stations (cor- some sewer lines, and in the com- Christchurch), outlying neighbor- responding to a potential volume of munity of Kaiapoi sewage is being hoods of Spencerville and Brook- approximately 9,000 m3). pumped from one of these low points lands (northeast of Christchurch), The hardest hit communities in into the river. The effects of these and Kaiapoi and Pines Beach Christchurch were perhaps Spencer- settlements on surface storm drain- (northeast of Christchurch, north of ville and Brooklands. Two weeks af- age have not been determined; the Waimakariri River). ter the earthquake, neither commu- neither have potential nity had functioning wastewater col- effects on river chan- lection systems, and Brooklands was nels and flood plains without potable water.