Because of the 2010 Canterbury earthquake (7.1 magnitude) which devastated much of the city, the college accommodated the entire primary school community of St Paul's School, Dallington for several months. But the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake (6.3 magnitude) caused far worse devastation to the city than the September 2010 earthquake. Parts of the college were under the unstable 400-ton dome of the Catholic Cathedral. Because the dome was in imminent danger of collapse, the college left the site and operated in the afternoons at St Thomas of Canterbury College. St Paul's School moved to a site which the Minister of Education made available. The dome was removed on 26 July and the school moved back to its own site on 1 August 2011. However three buildings remained off limits. Because of the effects of the earthquakes, Marian College was relocated to Catholic Cathedral College (which had enough surplus capacity to accommodate both schools in ordinary time) at the beginning of the 2012 school year for a period expected to be between two and four years.