A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck near Wellington, New Zealand's capital, on July 21, causing a 656-foot long, 33-foot wide portion of the city's port to collapse into the sea.
The minute-long shaking was felt as far away as Auckland, which is located more than 390 miles north of the capital. According to AIR, about 35 buildings in the city sustained damage, including the Parliament Building.
However, due to the country's strict building codes, AIR says it does not expect significant insured losses from the earthquake, which caused no casualties. Aon Benfield says four people sustained minor injuries, but there was not enough damage to warrant an emergency declaration.
Most of Wellington's buildings are in line with modern design codes and many of its older buildings have been retrofitted to mitigate the impact of earthquakes says AIR. The most vulnerable buildings in the region are made with unreinforced masonry.
“Building seismic design codes in New Zealand, which rank among the most stringent in the world, have identified Wellington as a high seismic zone,” said Dr. Arash Nasseri, senior engineer of research at AIR Worldwide. “The city has a relatively high seismic hazard and some part of the city also runs the risk of ground failure from earthquakes, in the form of landslides and liquefaction.”
The business district is open although smashed windows, dangling ceiling panels and other debris are scattered throughout the city, as well as broken water mains and downed power lines. The damaged port has been reopened, officials say.
According to Aon Benfield, minor non-structural damage was reported in four towns outside of Wellington.
The earthquake was the largest in a series of medium-sized tremors that struck the Cook Strait on July 18 and July 20. AIR scientists say that the recent earthquake occurred at the boundary of the Pacific and Australia tectonic plates, which is surrounded by several trenches and a large fault system.
Although about 200,000 earthquakes are located in New Zealand each year, says EQECAT, this was the strongest to be felt in the city of Wellington in many years. New Zealand's Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS)
New Zealand's Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS) service estimates that there could be up to nine magnitude 5.0 or greater events, in the coming week, with an approximately 30% probability (a 1 in 3 chance) of a magnitude 6.0 or greater.
New Zealand's Christchurch earthquake was the second-worst natural catastrophe of 2011, costing $12 billion in insured losses as reported by Swiss Re; however, this event was unrelated to the seismic events of July 2013.
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