How many christchurch aftershocks

Up to , buildings were damaged and about 10, buildings needed to be demolished. Christchurch was divided into four zones after the earthquake. The land in the Green Zone was undamaged and could be built on again. In the Orange Zone more checks were needed before the land could be be built on.

The White Zone was the area that had not been checked at all yet. The land in some parts of the city was very unstable: building on it safely will be difficult. These areas are called the Red Zone. The water and sewage pipes were badly damaged. Many people needed to use portable or chemical toilets, and got their water from tankers for months after the quake.

Groups of people came from all over New Zealand to help people who were affected by the earthquake. Skip to main navigation Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to search Skip to content. Use current location.

See all locations. Admin Admin Admin, collapsed. Main navigation What's On. Open search form. Multiple buildings collapsed, and the city was impacted by burst water mains, flooding, liquefaction and power outages.

The port was damaged, and many roads cracked. More than 4, vehicles were stranded in the city centre during the recovery period. Schools were closed; the Christchurch airport remained open only for emergencies. As a result of both the September and February earthquakes, 10, homes needed to be rebuilt and 3, demolished. Those shakes, collectively known as the Canterbury earthquake sequence, were the biggest insured event in New Zealand history and at the time the 4 th most expensive insured, global natural disaster to ever occur.

More than , insurance claims have been made as a result of the quakes. More than , of these have been made with private insurers. At current premium rates, it would take private insurers around 40 years to pay off the cost of the Canterbury earthquake sequence provided no other earthquake claims were received in that time. Given these high costs, it's important private insurers maintain good profitability and reinsurers continue to remain in the New Zealand market.

It's these factors that ensure we're covered for such large-scale events. In Canterbury, anyone whose house or contents were damaged in one of the earthquakes had to first lodge a claim with the Earthquake Commission EQC. The process of investigating and transferring over cap claims has been slow. As of mid, private insurers are still receiving an average of 2 over cap claims a day from EQC.

EQC then reimbursed private insurers for the under-cap portion of all the claims they managed. This model worked much more efficiently.

In November EQC, ICNZ and eight private insurers announced the new partnership model to provide an improved, more collaborative approach to supporting New Zealanders through natural disasters in the future.

Under the new partnership, from 30 June anyone with home insurance whose home or land is damaged in a natural disaster can lodge the claim through their private insurer. Customers will then work with their insurer who will assess, manage and settle their claim, ensuring a more effective and efficient response, and delivering simplicity and certainty for customers during a very stressful time. Court cases were often needed to set precedent on a number of issues regarding the interpretation of insurance contracts.

This slowed down progress for not only the customer involved in the court case but other customers waiting to see how the courts would rule. The RMS model is the only New Zealand catastrophe model based on five-year samples of earthquake activity.

Within these samples there are numerous earthquake sequences and many, like —11, spanning more than one calendar year. An aftershock that causes far more damage than the mainshock is extremely unusual. In fact, it is hard to find another example. This is only possible if the mainshock is in a low-population area, and the largest aftershock is a direct hit on a major city.

The Mw7. Then, just three-and-a-half hours later, the Mw6. The surrounding rural Canterbury Plains extend over 17, square miles 44, square kilometers. For the future, aftershock activity is the one area of earthquake forecasting that shows promise. If activity like the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence had occurred in , one could imagine rapidly simulating multiple representations of potential aftershocks immediately following the September 4, , Mw7. Even then the shallow Mw6.

The event was conceivable but still highly unlikely. For the size, location, and depth of the February 22, , Christchurch Earthquake, a worse outcome would be hard to find. But just because an event has happened does not make it likely.

The lesson, both in developing the RMS New Zealand Earthquake HD Model and in exploring the loss EP outputs for other cities worldwide, is to include the worst cases, even while recognizing such outcomes are of low probability.

Home news Updates Understanding the aftershock cloud: 10 Years on since the Christchurch earthquakes.