The Christchurch earthquake - magnitude 6.3 - which occurred on February 22nd, 2011, was one of the most destructive earthquakes ever recorded in New Zealand in terms of damage and also one of the most disastrous in terms of death toll, causing 185 deaths. The February Christchurch earthquake caused widespread damage, forcing the demolition of many buildings in the Christchurch CBD, such as the Grand Chancellor Hotel and the Christchurch Cathedral, which were the famous icons of the city. But why was this earthquake so destructive compared to the even more massive magnitude 7.1 magnitude that hit Christchurch on September 4 2010? What caused the fault to rupture? These questions I will be answering later in the report. On February 22nd 2011 there were 2 small earthquakes magnitude 3.2 and 2.3 in the space of 12 hours before the big 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch on 12:51pm. The timing of the earthquake was very unfortunate because it was in the middle of the day. The epicenter of the earthquake was 10 kilometres south-east of the Christchurch CBD, 2 kilometres west of Lyttleton which was a small town south-east of Christchurch. The focus of the earthquake was 5 kilometres below the surface which is extremely shallow for an earthquake. After the initial 6.3 earthquake aftershocks continued to rattle Christchurch every minute or so, the numbers of aftershocks slowly plummeted as the hours progressed. The focus of the earthquake rupturing lead to 2 edges of the fault-line finally giving way when the stress of the faultline reached its capacity and let go of all the energy strained inside the fault-line. The story behind the tragic event that occurred in the February Christchurch earthquake started back millions of years ago when the faults near Christchurch were created by tensions between the Australian and Pacific plates at the Alpine fault west of Christchurch. The tensions caused stress in the 2 plates fracturing many areas of the plates causing them to become strike-slip faults. However there was no evidence of the strike-slip fault’s existence until September 4th 2010 when the Greendale Fault west of Christchurch suddenly collapsed with a massive 7.1 earthquake. This created a series of aftershock, all the aftershocks created stress in the rock to the Lyttleton Fault, which had already been building up all the stress for possibly millions of years. The February 22nd earthquake rupturing was caused by Lyttleton Fault finally giving way after the 2 edges of the fault line released all the stress that has been built up. When the stress was released in the Lyttleton fault from the 2 edges of the fault line it created energy in the form of s