As part of the cost-sharing package provided to Hawke’s Bay’s five councils, the Government have confirmed $203.5 million toward flood protection for the region. The funds will be provided to Hawke’s Bay Regional Council specifically to support .
Source: University of Waikato
University of Waikato researchers who have been investigating newly-discovered faults in the Hamilton Basin say a fault uncovered near Morrinsville may have also impacted the Hamilton area.
Professor David Lowe and others in his team are working on a joint project, led by GNS Science and funded by EQC, investigating newly-identified Te Puninga Fault near Morrinsville.
His team of researchers has also been working to uncover Hamilton’s seismic history by analysing liquefied layers of volcanic ash preserved within sediments that accumulate at the bottom of lakes and using them to identify earthquake activity.
“Te Puninga Fault is the closest one to the Hamilton Basin, which we have been focused on, so we are now also trying to work out if activity on Te Puninga Fault may have impacted on the Hamilton Basin, and when.”
EQC
GNS Science experts have embarked on a research project to determine the earthquake risk of a recently discovered fault in Waikato. One is in north Hamilton, around Osborne Rd, and the Kukutaruhe Fault cuts through Hamilton from Temple View to Rototuna. Another two are in the southeastern Te Tatua o Wairere fault zone - a fault running between Rukuhia and Hillcrest, and a second branching out towards Tamahere. In 2016, an 80km-long Kerepehi fault, running close to Matamata northward into the Firth of Thames, was discovered in the late 1970s but re-examined almost 50 years later in much greater detail. From here GNS Science examined the 25km fault in Te Puninga, 27km from Hamilton, and is now working to determine how great the earthquake risk is to surrounding residents.
Thursday, 18 February 2021, 12:15 pm
GNS Science experts have embarked on a research project
to determine the earthquake risk of a recently discovered
fault in the Waikato.
This is part of an effort to
better understand quake risk in parts of New Zealand that
are traditionally seen as safe from quakes.
Thanks to
improved aerial mapping tools, scientists recently
discovered the Te Puninga fault, 27km from Hamilton, that
could potentially generate a 6.7 magnitude
earthquake.
Dr Pilar Villamor, an earthquake geologist
at GNS Science, is heading up an EQC-funded project to study
the fault, about 3km from Morrinsville.
Dr Villamor
says that researchers estimate the fault could generate a