In order to make sense of the sediment cores that can be retrieved from lakes near to the Alpine Fault such as Lake Christabel, it is worth having a think about what happens to the environment when the fault ruptures in a large earthquake. Under normal conditions, alpine lakes fill up very slowly with sediment […]
Nature’s Earthquake Recorders Read More »
Lake Christabel J.Thomson@GNS Science This is Lake Christabel in New Zealand’s South Island. It is one of the many beautiful alpine lakes to be found close to the Alpine Fault. Lake Christabel was formed when a huge landslide blocked the valley, thus damming the river that then backed up to form the lake.The present day
The Alpine Fault is divided into several segments based on changes in its tectonic structure and earthquake history along the plate boundary. The northern end of the Alpine Fault is much less straightforward in comparison to the southern and central sections. This is in the area where other faults of the Marlborough Fault System branch
The famous NASA image of New Zealand’s South Island clearly shows the trace of the Alpine Fault along the straight western edge of the Southern Alps. This oblique Google Earth view of the West Coast shows the relative uplift on the eastern side of the fault that has created the Southern Alps. The Hokuri Creek
A Ticker Tape Record of Alpine Fault Earthquakes Read More »
Having had a close up look to the surface trace of the Wairarapa Fault (see recent post here), I thought it would be interesting to find out the latest about what such a major geological structure looks like below the earth’s surface. Stuart Henrys and colleagues at Victoria University, the University of Tokyo, Japan, and
Imaging the Crust beneath Wellington Read More »
The Wairarapa Fault is one of New Zealand’s large active faults running along the eastern edge of the Rimutaka range from Palliser Bay north into the Wairarapa. It was responsible for the massive magnitude 8.2 earthquake that violently shook the lower North Island in 1855 in New Zealand’s largest historically recorded ‘quake. This Google Earth
Wairarapa Fault – the Biggest Rupture on Earth Read More »
Announcing our new Google Map that shows the locations of blog posts, videos and some of our website information within New Zealand. Zoom in and out to find a location and click on any icon to go straight to the online content. If you enable full screen (by clicking on the square icon at the
Geolocating GNS Science Outreach Read More »
GNS Science and Waikato University are investigating one thousand of the geothermal hot springs in New Zealand’s North Island. The goal of this ambitious 1000 Springs Research Project is to understand and compare the microbiology of these springs along with their physical and chemical make-up. That adds up to a lot of sampling trips, processing
1000 Geothermal Springs Read More »
Hooker Valley rockfall. – Simon Cox / GNS Science On the evening of Monday 14th July there was a large rockfall from the western slopes of Mount Cook into the Hooker Valley. Staff from the Department of Conservation and GNS Scientist Simon Cox flew over the area to make assessments of the impact. The first photo shows
Mount Cook Rockfall Read More »
The Alpine Fault forms the plate boundary in New Zealand’s South Island, and is a very significant fault on a global scale. It last ruptured in 1717 AD and appears to produce large earthquakes on average every 330 years. Its next rupture has a high probability (28%) of occurring in the next 50 years. Each
Drilling into New Zealand’s most dangerous fault Read More »