BU551 Learnings from the Canterbury earthquakes

Four earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater hit Canterbury between September 2010 and December 2011. 185 people died, and hundreds of thousands of building were damaged.

This free bulletin gives an overview of the learnings that came from examination of damaged buildings by BRANZ engineers.

The bulletin covers:

• role of the Building Code
• liquefaction and lateral spreading
• ground shaking
• housing stock characteristics
• learnings from the earthquakes, including hill sites, connections, slabs and foundations, heavy elements and cladding, walls, non-structural components and overall house performance.