Faultlines: Earthquakes in Aotearoa New Zealand

The Canterbury Earthquake Collection on Collections Online

The Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 are among the most significant events in New Zealand’s history. From precious jewellery to tea-towels, Te Papa has been collecting objects and filming stories around the earthquakes. See some of the items on Collections Online.

Collecting and remembering: Christchurch earthquakes in our blog

Following the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, Te Papa started collecting objects and filming stories around the earthquakes – particularly around public support, such as fundraising and spirit-raising initiatives, and around creative and entrepreneurial responses to the earthquakes. Read about some of the people and objects in our blog.

Canterbury Earthquake Collection

The Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 are among the most significant events in New Zealand’s history. Te Papa collected objects around fundraising, spirit-raising, and creative and entrepreneurial responses to the earthquakes.

Watch: Community responses to the Christchurch earthquake

Watch a series of interviews about creative and community responses to the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes in Canterbury, New Zealand.

One shot: Capturing the heart of our new quake house

Our Earthquake House has had a makeover. It includes a new immersive video experience featuring actors Rachel House and Rākau Tamaira. Making the new video was no simple task – particularly as the whole thing had to be filmed in one shot.

Disaster planning and recovery

Be ready for earthquakes, fires, and floods. Protect your staff, visitors, and collections.

Putting the pieces back together after the earthquake

On 14 Nov 2016 an earthquake registering 7.8 on the Richter scale shook Wellington awake. All-in-all Te Papa’s buildings and its collection were virtually unscathed. Out of over two million collection objects, only nine were damaged.

Earthquake expert Q&A

In 2013, while there was a lot of earthquake activity in central Aotearoa New Zealand, we took the opportunity to put your questions about what's going on under our feet to our then-resident Subject Expert – Earth Science, Hamish Campbell from GNS Science.

Zhang Heng’s earthquake recorder

More than 1800 years ago, Zhang Heng, a Chinese astronomer and mathematician during the Eastern Han dynasty, developed this device for recording the ground waves produced by earthquakes. It is the earliest known instrument of its kind.

Seeing earthquakes

Dr Hamish Campbell shares his experience witnessing the green lights in the sky following the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake.

Quake Braker

Go underground to see the amazing Kiwi innovation that ‘puts the brakes on’ in an earthquake.

Halting the jolts: How Te Papa resists earthquakes

How did Te Papa survive the Kaikoura earthquake nearly unscathed?

Education visit: Active Earth

Primary, Secondary

Delve into the inner workings of our amazing planet – from the inner core to earthquakes and volcanoes at the surface.

ShakerMod: Earthquake Encounters

ShakerMod – play an educational Minecraft mod which simulates earthquakes and creates an experiential and playful approach to understanding how to protect our homes against them – Fix. Fasten. Don’t Forget!

Teaching resource: Building an earthquake ready future

Primary, Secondary

Using the Stanford design process, teach students to create resilient communities that can deal with the effects of earthquakes when they happen – both social and structural.

He rauemi kaiako: Te waihanga i te apōpō, rū ana, takatū ana

Primary, Secondary

Mā te tūkanga o te whakaaro hoahoa a Stanford, ka taea ngā ākonga kia hanga putanga hei āwhina i ngā uauatanga mō te hāpori kua pā atu ki a rātou i muri tata mai i te rū whenua – ā-tāngata nei, ā-hanganga nei.