The major events of the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence (CES) caused significant land and building damage in Christchurch between September 2010 and December 2011. The extensive damage necessitated detailed ground investigations and liquefaction hazard assessments to inform repair and rebuild options. Relying solely on intrusive testing to provide sufficient information for ground characterisation, risk assessments and design is often costly, particularly for large sites, and can be limited by site access. Combining traditional intrusive methods with non-intrusive geophysical investigations has proven to be an economical and time-saving approach and can aid in delineating abrupt changes in ground stratigraphy. This paper presents a case study site where a combination of Multi-channel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW) profiles and Cone Penetrometer Tests (CPTs) were used to outline the extents of an in-filled palaeochannel. The contrasting land and building damage at the site is described, together with the importance of a detailed desktop study. The MASW and CPT results are correlated with observations of damage, and the effectiveness of combining the two investigation techniques is highlighted.
This paper was originally presented at the Geotechnical and Geophysical Site Characterisation 5 conference and is reproduced here with permission of the Australian Geomechanics Society. For additional papers from this conference see http://australiangeomechanics.org/public-resources/downloads/#dlISC5 Proceedings