Dates calculated for past Kekerengu Fault ruptures could help identify previous multi-fault earthquakes stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
NZ earthquake risk: The million-year model unravelling nation s peril
7 Mar, 2021 03:11 AM
6 minutes to read
A new state-of-the-art model may shed new light on what triggered the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake. Photo / Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter
A new state-of-the-art model may shed new light on what triggered the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake. Photo / Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter
Kiwi scientists have created a million-year catalogue of synthetic earthquakes that could help answer just the kind of big questions now swirling around Friday s shaky morning. It may also help tell us what kicked off the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake - one of the most complex ever recorded - and how certain elements of New Zealand s landscape can worsen shaking effects.
Hidden clues may tell us about Alpine Fault s next big rupture
10 Jan, 2021 02:58 AM
5 minutes to read
Geologists have gained rich insights into earthquake behaviour from a section of Marlborough s Kekerengu Fault that ruptured in November 2016. Photo / Julian Thomson
A discovery made in the wake of 2016 s Kaikoura Earthquake could help scientists better understand how the big-risk Alpine Fault may unravel. The Alpine Fault, which runs about 600km up the western side of the South Island between Milford Sound and Marlborough, poses one of the biggest natural threats to New Zealand.
It has a clear geologic record of rupturing around every three centuries - and 2017 marked the 300th anniversary of what is thought to have been a magnitude 8 quake that moved one side of the fault by about 8m in a matter of seconds.