GNS senior earthquake scientist Dr Rob Langridge inspects the fault zone in the Inchbonnie trench across the Alpine Fault. Shaking near the epicentre, not far from Haast, would be unlike any felt in modern New Zealand history. The Alpine Fault is the boundary between the Pacific crustal plate and the Australian plate. Drive out to Ōkārito to look at how people and the environment will be affected by an Alpine Fault Earthquake. It could be a lower-magnitude local rupture in the [magnitude] 6s, or it could have ruptured a larger part of the North Westland section and be in the low [magnitude] 7s.". More work was being done to refine the date of that last quake. Geologists and authorities are racing to quantify what might happen, and how they might respond in the event of the next one, likely to occur some time in the next 50 years. This news article from Stuff covers some research on the frequency of past earthquakes along the Alpine fault. Ms Cooper lives near the Alpine Fault, which is likely to rupture within the lifetime of many New Zealanders. Project Alpine Fault Magnitude 8 (AF8) released a series of videos on Wednesday, warning there's compelling geological evidence to show it produces a significant earthquake of magnitude eight or greater every 300 years on average. "Bends like that usually stop earthquakes.". The central section had evidence of eight events with a return period of 263 years plus or minus 68 years and slip of 28mm a year. For their date discovery, Howarth and Langridge used new techniques of radiocarbon-dating to reanalyse organic material found in trenches on the section of the fault between the Toaroha River, about 20km southeast of Hokitika, and Springs Junction. Dr Caroline Orchiston explains the Alpine Fault and the damage the earthquake will have. The bend – where the fault turns from its northeast-southwest orientation to run in a more north-south direction – was a "big unknown" in terms of how it interfered with ruptures. “I still think the major worry in Otago and Southland is the Alpine Fault itself, and also from the sorts of smaller faults through the South Island.” – Stuff Six quakes rattle NZ: A flurry of six earthquakes have struck the country overnight, with the strongest, a magnitude 4.9 , hitting off Seddon. The Alpine Fault is a geological fault that runs almost the entire length of New Zealand's South Island (c. 480 km) and forms the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. The Southern Alps have been uplifted on the fault over the last 12 million years in a series of earthquakes. "We have used that scenario to work with our partners to identify the foreseeable impacts on communities and critical infrastructure across the South Island," he said. The Marlborough Fault System is a set of four large dextral strike-slip faults and other related structures in the northern part of South Island, New Zealand, which transfer displacement between the mainly transform plate boundary of the Alpine fault and the mainly destructive boundary of the Kermadec Trench, and together form the boundary between the Australian and Pacific Plates. The catastrophic threat the South Island's Alpine Fault poses to New Zealand has been front and centre of a Civil Defence conference in Queenstown today. Despite its obvious tectonic significance, the Alpine fault has not ruptured since European settlement in the 1840s. From the LEARNZ Alpine Fault online field trip at… Stuff has the latest information on this: Videos show devastating impact across South Island if Alpine Fault ruptures Video simulations demonstrate widespread destruction across the South Island if New Zealand’s most dangerous fault line ruptures, and there’s evidence the country is due for another big one. 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GNS Science earthquake geologists studying layers in the trench across the Alpine Fault at Calf Paddock near Springs Junction. It runs northeast from the northern side of the entrance to Milford Sound, along the western side of the Southern Alps for about 800 kilometres before morphing into the Marlborough fault system beyond St Arnaud. "But we don't really know any more than that. The last rupture was believed to have happened in 1717. "The next step is to plan in more detail for a coordinated response to those impacts and the extensive disruption they will cause. GNS Science earthquake geologist Robert Langridge has been studying why the Alpine Fault is so susceptible to earthquakes - it's since been discovered that it may be the world's fastest-moving known fault line. [Chapter Break] After their ground breaking paper on the Alpine Fault, Willett [2] Ruptures occurred on multiple faults and the earthquake has been described as the "most complex earthquake ever studied". Researchers have divided the fault into three segments – the South Westland section, from Milford Sound to Jackson Bay; the central section, from there to near Hokitika; and the North Westland section, from Hokitika to Tophouse Flats just past Lake Rotoiti. Highest point Peak Aoraki / Mount Cook Elevation 3,724 m (12,218 ft) Coordinates Dimensions Length 500 km (310 mi) Geography Location South Island, New Zealand The Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana is a mountain range extending along much of the length of New Zealand's South Island, reaching its greatest elevations near the range's western side. In this recording, Alpine fault drilling, part of Te Papa’s Science Express programme, hear about the deepest fault drilling ever done in New Zealand. Instead, they have evidence from the back country behind Hokitika that the northern part of the fault ruptured more recently, sometime between 1740 and 1840, possibly generating a quake with a magnitude of 7.0 to 7.5. It would be more of a rolling motion for people in Christchurch, because of their distance away from the fault… GNS details on the Alpine Fault The Alpine Fault, which runs for about 600km up the spine of the South Island, is one of the world’s major geological features. MICHAEL MANGA Neat stuff in the Field Alpine Fault, New Zealand, 2009 The Alpine Fault is a strike-slip fault that runs nearly the entire length of New Zealand's south island. The 2016 Kaikoura earthquake was a magnitude 7.8 (Mw) earthquake in the South Island of New Zealand that occurred two minutes after midnight on 14 November 2016 NZDT (11:02 on 13 November UTC). It's about whether that provides some protection for those population centres in Marlborough and Wellington further down the fault. Fault ruptures ” Stuff to a significant emergency and how to stay prepared in front of the Fault over last..., New Zealand shown what would happen in the 1840s the extensive disruption they will cause …! 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