Which New Zealand city was devastated by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in 2011?

Christchurch was the New Zealand city devastated by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in 2011.

The earthquake struck on 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time, with its shallow hypocentre only about 5 kilometres underground and close to the city. Although it was smaller than the magnitude 7.1 Canterbury earthquake of September 2010, the later shock caused far more destruction because it was nearer Christchurch, struck during a busy weekday lunch period, and affected buildings already weakened by earlier shaking.

The earthquake was part of the aftershock sequence associated with the 2010 Canterbury event, although some scientists considered it a separate earthquake because it ruptured a different fault system. Its intense vertical and horizontal ground motion damaged the central business district, roads, homes, and infrastructure.

Christchurch Cathedral was badly damaged, and the collapse of the Canterbury Television building became one of the disaster’s most tragic symbols. The earthquake killed 185 people and remains one of New Zealand’s deadliest natural disasters.