It is argued that there is still a need for further exploratory research to unravel the ultimate causes of unresolved case histories (especially those involving failures) in geotechnical earthquake engineering. Three specific examples motivated from the records of the four major seismic episodes that shook the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2010 and 2011 are presented in detail. Peculiarities in these records call for an investigation of a number of plausible seismological and geotechnical contributing factors including source mechanics, forward-rupture directivity, 1Dsoil amplification, soil liquefaction, 2D basin amplification, and topographic aggravation
