Christchurch Earthquake Peak Ground Acceleration Stats
Posted by
JAC on 3/8/2011, 7:46 am
The Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) recorded at Christchurch Botanical Gardens - Comparisons:
4:35am, September 4 2010 Magnitude 7.1: Between 0.15 and 0.20 times the power of gravity
10:30am, December 26 2010 Magnitude 4.9 : 0.48
12:51pm, February 22 2011 Magnitude 6.3: 1.80
Statistically in terms of PGA, the February 22nd quake was a 1 in 1000 year event. Part of the reason for the destruction in Christchurch is that New Zealand buildings with a ~50year life span are only required to withstand a 1 in 500 year event, which is probably adequate enough. Usually. Christchurch was just unlucky that such a fast and shallow (not to be confused with strong) earthquake struck so close to the city.
In fact this was the fastest earthquake to hit a significant population base ever. The below table (while not the recording at the Botanical Gardens site) shows the comparison between significant earthquakes around the world. The 2.20g figure was recorded in the Christchurch suburb of Heathcote, near the epicentre of the quake.
PGA Mag Depth Fatalities Earthquake
2.2g 6.3 5km 166* 2011 Christchurch earthquake
1.7g 6.7 19km 57 1994 California earthquake
1.26g 7.1 10km 0 2010 Canterbury earthquake (reading taken in Darfield, close to epicentre)
0.8g 6.8 16km 6,434 1995 Kobe earthquake
0.51g 6.4 612 2005 Zarand earthquake
0.5g 7.0 13km 92,000 2010 Haiti earthquake
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