Construction or maintenance personnel and a geotechnical engineer narrowly avoided being a victim of a new landslide at the site of a landslide cleanup. They were attempting to clean up a landslide on the State Highway 2 in the Waioeka Gorge, New Zealand when spotters noticed the area becoming unstable. The workers were pulled back and had to ‘run for it’, but one worker was swept away by the slide while still in his excavator and two other excavators were partially engulfed. The man was able to safely get out of the cab of the excavator. [Source: Otago Daily Times Online News. Image: NewstalkZB]
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Christchurch, New Zealand Earthquake February 2011 News Resources
A deadly magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand on February 22, killing at least 147 and with around 200 still missing. Many buildings have been badly damaged or destroyed and residents also had to deal with large quanities of mud and water which was a result of the liquefaction. The same region was affected by a 7.1 magnitude quake in September of 2010. That earthquake was centered deeper and farther from the metropolitan area so there were fewer casualties and less damage. But many buildings that had recently been repaired, or were even still under repair were devastated once again. Some early reports were calling this earthquake an aftershock of the September earthquake, but maps I’ve seen (at right) show pretty clearly it was a different fault segment that ruptured during this earthquake. I have a collection of links below that might be of interest. My heart goes out to the people of New Zealand affected by this disaster.