New Zealand shares its shaky memories on QuakeStories

21 February 2012

300 and counting! New Zealand shares its shaky memories on QuakeStories

QuakeStories – New Zealand's online living memorial dedicated to the Christchurch earthquakes has reached 300 stories!

The website is a shared space where people from Canterbury, around New Zealand or even overseas can share their memories of the quakes. Designed to provide a permanent record of the impact of the earthquakes for future generations, the site has attracted a rich collection of first hand, moving accounts of the September 2010 and February 2011 quakes and their aftershocks.

Neill Atkinson, Chief Historian at Manatū Taonga/Ministry for Culture and Heritage which created QuakeStories with Christchurch partner NV Interactive, says the site has increased its audience steadily and recently added a photo function:

"We have been highly impressed by the quality and emotional intensity of the stories people have been submitting to the site and we’ve already amassed a great collection of photographs from our visitors."

Manatū Taonga has also just released a new infographic about the Canterbury earthquakes and why New Zealand is called the shaky isles. Released to coincide with the anniversary of last February's earthquake, it is the first in a new series of infographics and visualisations called ‘Perspectives’. The beautifully designed infographic uses images and information from Te Ara, NZHistory, GNS Science and GeoNet to explain what causes earthquakes and how they are measured.

Matthew Oliver (Manager Web Team) says the new Perspectives pages is about creating new and inventive ways of presenting information about New Zealand:

"The idea behind Perspectives is to give our users a new way of looking at New Zealand's history and culture. They'll be visually rich and full of information from our websites and the many websites we use to build Te Ara and NZ History. We're also making them available with a Creative Commons licence so people can take them away and use on their own websites."

To read first hand accounts of the Canterbury earthquakes head to: www.QuakeStories.govt.nz

For Perspectives on the shaky isles: Canterbury & other quakes: http://www.mch.govt.nz/perspectives/earthquakes/

For more commentary:
http://blog.teara.govt.nz/2012/02/21/new-zealand-earthquakes-infographic

ENDS

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