Earthquake Series

A series based on 5 events, initially as a reaction to the Kaikoura Earthquake in New Zealand. Crumpled paper doubles as a contour map, silent upheavals in the deep cast only a mild threat at the surface, even as huge upwellings race ashore.

Khao Lak, Thailand 2004    Oil on Canvas 80 x 120cm

The smaller but increasingly popular resort area of Khao Lak some 80 km north of Phuket was hit far worse with 3,950 confirmed deaths, however, the death toll in Khao Lak may have exceeded 4,500. The severity of the situation in Khao Lak is probably explained by the fact, that unlike the high-rise hotels of Phuket, the village of Khao Lak only had low built bungalows. There was no warning of the first wave so people had no idea it was coming.

Fukushima, Japan 2016     Oil on Canvas 80 x 120cm

The earthquake moved Honshu (the main island of Japan) 2.4 m (8 ft) east, shifted the Earth on its axis by estimates of between 10 cm (4 in) and 25 cm (10 in), increased earth's rotational speed by 1.8 µs per day and generated infrasound waves detected in perturbations of the low-orbiting GOCE satellite. Initially, the earthquake caused sinking of part of Honshu's Pacific coast by up to roughly a metre, but after about three years, the coast rose back and kept on rising to exceed its original height.

Gorkha, Nepal 2015     Oil on Canvas 80 x 120cm

The risk of a large earthquake was well known beforehand. In 2013, in an interview with seismologist Vinod Kumar Gaur, The Hindu quoted him as saying, "Calculations show that there is sufficient accumulated energy now to produce an 8 magnitude earthquake. I cannot say when. It may not happen tomorrow, but it could possibly happen sometime this century, or wait longer to produce a much larger one." According to Brian Tucker, founder of a nonprofit organization devoted to reducing casualties from natural disasters, some government officials had expressed confidence that such an earthquake would not occur again. Tucker recounted a conversation he had had with a government official in the 1990s who said, "We don't have to worry about earthquakes anymore, because we already had an earthquake"; the previous earthquake to which he referred occurred in 1934.

Kaikoura, New Zealand  2016     Oil on Canvas 80 x 120cm

Cape Campbell, at the north-eastern tip of the South Island, moved to the north-northeast by more than two metres – putting it that much closer to the North Island – and rose almost one metre. Kaikoura moved to the northeast by nearly one metre, and rose seventy centimetres. The east coast of the North Island moved west by up to five centimetres, and the Wellington region moved two to six centimetres to the north. Christchurch moved two centimetres to the south. 

Christchurch, New Zealand  2011      Oil on Canvas 80 x 120cm

The epicentre was closer to Christchurch, and shallow at 5 kilometres (3 mi) underground, whereas the September quake was measured at 10 kilometres (6 mi) deep. The February earthquake occurred during lunchtime on a weekday when the CBD was busy, and many buildings were already weakened from the previous quakes. The peak ground acceleration (PGA) was extremely high, and simultaneous vertical and horizontal ground movement was "almost impossible" for buildings to survive intact.