On Tuesday, the 22 February 2011 at 12:51 pm, Christchurch was struck by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake. 185 people were killed by the earthquake and 164 people were seriously injured.
What happened
The earthquake’s epicentre was near Lyttelton. After the initial earthquake, many aftershocks occurred but none were larger than 4 or more.
There were millions of damages caused to water pipes, bridges, houses, tunnels, power lines, roads and much more.
There was a lot of liquefaction just like the September 4th, 2010 earthquake. Liquefaction is the process that generates a liquid from a solid or gas. Lots of water surfaced flooding the streets, thick muddy slush spread everywhere, causing buildings, cars, and power lines to sink into the ground. The…show more content… Most of these deaths happened due to collapsing buildings. 115 people died when a 6-story building fell down, and 18 died when a 4-story building collapsed. There were many rescue teams trying their best to save as many people as possible around the clock.
Earthquakes in New Zealand in general
Earthquakes in New Zealand happen along the South Island fault line. The fault line runs through Christchurch and is the cause of the New Zealand Southern Alps that are in the South Island.
Every year in New Zealand, GNS science locates around 15,000 earthquakes. About 100-150 of these quakes are large enough to be felt. GNS records these earthquakes using a seismograph which records the shaking of earthquakes.
How Earthquakes are caused
Earthquakes are caused when two tectonic plates meet on a Faultline. The two plates grind along each other releasing energy called seismic waves. The seismic waves make the ground shake. The two plates don’t rub against each other smoothly but rather roughly, meaning they stick together and when the break free that is when the earthquake happens. The rocks keep moving and breaking until they get stuck again. All those little breaks in-between are the aftershocks. The tectonic plates underground move because of the convection currents in the mantle which are always