New Zealand has thousands of active faults each of which will produce an earthquake of some magnitude when it ruptures. However the two giants are the Alpine Fault and the Hikurangi Subduction Fault. They each form a segment of the plate boundary – the Alpine Fault can be traced across land, the length of the South […]
What’s on our Plates? Read More »
Tora is a small rural community on the Wairarapa Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. There are many interesting geological outcrops and landforms in the area. For me the most spectacular of these are in the area of sloping farmland just south of where the inland road meets the coast. On a recent
Raised Beaches at Tora Read More »
Seaward Slide, J.Thomson @ GNS science Rockfalls and landslides were one of the dramatic consequences of the M7.8 Kaikoura Quake. This first photo shows one that is actually so huge that you might not at first recognise it for what it is. The white cliff in the distance is the landslide scarp and the huge
Photo Tim Little @ VUW Whilst there were many faults that ruptured during the recent M7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake, the Kekerengu Fault is perhaps the most awe inspiring in terms of its effect on the landscape and infrastructure. As it ripped through the countryside, it displaced the land to either side by an astonishing 8 to
The Kekerengu Fault Read More »
J,.Thomson @ GNS Science On the ground in the Kaikoura Quake aftermath: Following the recent M7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake, a number of teams of scientists have been deployed to survey the geological impacts and assess the potential ongoing risks to people and infrastructure. This gallery of images shows some of the numerous dramatic impacts of the quake
A Ruptured Landscape Read More »
The National Seismic Hazard Model is the result of lots of work by scientists to indicate the likelihood of earthquakes happening in different parts of New Zealand. It is made with reference to the historic record of earthquakes that have happened across the country, combined with research into the rupture histories of many individual active
Precarious Boulders and Earthquakes Read More »
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
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 »