Ground Movement and Strains from Airphoto Measurements in Avonside Caused by 2010 Darfield Earthquake

Abstract

In this work ground failure following the 2010 Darfield earthquake in Canterbury, NZ was studied. Lateral spreading and horizontal ground strains were analyzed in an area near the Central Business District of Christchurch city. The Avon river runs through the middle of the study area and includes natural, filled and artificially cut stream bed stretches. Lateral displacement vectors from photogrammetric data were interpolated and used to produce ground strains. Large compressive and tensile strains were identified. Natural point bars were found to correlate closely with tensile strains. Natural stream bed (filled and existing) was found to closely correlate with compressive strains. Vector magnitude values of lateral displacements were found to correlate with water supply pipe repair rates (R2 = 0.42). However, ground strains did not correlate with lateral displacements, water supply pipe repair rates or settlements from the photogrammetric data. Therefore, it may be concluded that ground strains have limited use in the indication of potential repair rates and do not directly predict settlement. However, ground strains were observed as useful in identifying paleo-geomorphology of the area in general and changing soil density profiles in particular.