Strong-motion records from the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury Earthquakes

Christchurch February 22, 2011 Ruaumoko earthquake records

Athol Carr has reformatted records for use in his Ruaumoko intergrated time-history anaysis software.

Zip files of these NCEER format records for the Christchurch (2011) and Darfield (2010) earthquakes, have an .EQN extension so that SPECTRA, INSPECT and PQUAKE know what type of format they are whereas for RUAUMOKO2D and RUAUMOKO3D the format type has to be input.

The time step is 0.005 seconds and the divisor required to convert them to accelerations of gravity is 9810.0.

Some of the records are not as long as the record header suggests as there were corruptions in some of the original records. Those records have been shortened.

Further, many of the records have quite a long initial period with nothing happening and it may be worth working out which line to use as the start line to shorten the analysis times. Please email Prof. Carr or Bruce Deam if you can identify where to begin the analysis and these records will be updated.

M7.1 Darfield (Canterbury) Earthquake Sequence, September 4, 2010

Strong-motion from the M7.1 Darfield (Canterbury) Earthquake Sequence was recorded on two networks: the GNS Science backbone GeoNet network of Etna accelerographs, and the joint University of Canterbury/GeoNet Canterbury Network (CanNet), comprised of CUSP accelerographs. Both are operated by the GeoNet division of GNS Science.

The GeoNet network map shows the locations of the CanNet sites as lighter squares when the 'operational sites' and 'strong motion seismograph sites' are selected. The dark squares show the backbone GNS system.

Two M5 aftershocks have occurred so far (19/10/2010); the first at 7:49 am NZST on September 8th and the second at 11:32 am NZST on October 19th.

The CanNet Station codes, their NZGD49 locations and direct links to the raw accelrogram records are tabulated below:

STATION
ID 		NAME LAT LON 4 Sep 8 Sep 19 Oct
AMBC Amberley HDC -43.15635 172.7308   data
CCCC Christchurch Cathedral College -43.5395 172.6464 data data
CHHC Christchurch Hospital -43.5355 172.6261 data data
CSTC Cust School -43.31396 172.3812    
CULC Culverden - Airlie Farm -42.76112 172.8025    
DORC Dorie -43.89842 172.0937 data  
DSLC Dunsandel School -43.66916 172.1978 data  
GDLC Greendale -43.58796 172.0893 data  
HORC Hororata School -43.5413 171.9598 data  
HPSC Hulverstone Drive Pumping Station -43.50324 172.7021 data data
HVSC Heathcote Valley Primary School -43.59008 172.7156 data  
KOWC Kowai -43.32313 171.8547   data
KPOC Kaiapoi North School -43.37813 172.6636 data data
LINC Lincoln Crop & Food Research -43.62484 172.4679 data data
LPCC Lyttelton Port Company -43.6056 172.7223 data data
LRSC Lauriston -43.73105 171.7935 data  
LSRC Lake Sumner Road -42.8712 172.5432 data data
MAYC Mayfield School -43.82472 171.4216 data  
MSMC Mount Somers School -43.70625 171.4022    
NBLC New Brighton Library -43.50852 172.7312    
PEEC Peel Forest -43.92532 171.2366 data  
PRPC Pages Road Pumping Station -43.527 172.7017 data data
RHSC Riccarton High School -43.53975 172.5739 data data
RKAC Rakaia School -43.75312 172.023 data  
ROLC Rolleston School -43.59448 172.381 data data
SBRC Southbridge School -43.81036 172.2523 data data
SCAC Scargill -42.94025 172.9215   data
SHFC Sheffield School -43.39282 172.0256   data
SHLC Shirley Library -43.507 172.6633 data data
SMTC Styx Mill Transfer Station -43.46919 172.6137 data data
SWNC Swannanoa School -43.3711 172.4952 data data
TPLC Templeton School -43.55166 172.4718 data data
WAKC Waikari -42.96478 172.7051 data data
WIGC Waiau Gorge -42.70287 172.8002    
WSFC Westerfield -43.83899 171.6109 data  
WTMC Waiau, Te Mara Farm -42.62114 173.0535 data  
  All CanNet Records     folder folder folder
  All Building Records     folder folder folder
  All GeoNet Records     folder folder folder

Download the record to your machine. After some heading data, the accelerations are listed in a single column in ASCII format in units of milli-g, in the sequence, x,y,z, x,y,z,….

The records can be viewed in the CuspView.exe program, which can be downloaded from the “Downloads” section of the Canterbury Seismic Instruments web site. Once the record is in CuspView, it can be saved in a number of common formats (under “Files”). The SeismoSoft Seismosignal program provides a convenient method of processing the raw accelerograms.
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