The greatest movement was upward and toward the northwest under the Avon-Heathcote estuary area. It was part of a swarm of tremors around Milford … 1) was about 14 kilometres long, and extends east-northeast from Cashmere to the Avon-Heathcote estuary area. A big quake on the Alpine Fault could block South Island highways in more than 120 places and leave 10,000 people cut off, new research has estimated. The duration of shaking is expected to last over 3 minutes for an Alpine fault earthquake and at least 20 seconds for a Hope fault earthquake. The Christchurch Fault is an active seismic fault running under the city of Christchurch in the middle of New Zealand's South Island. The Alpine Fault creates the earthquake by the opposite sides rubbing against each other after tension has built up between the two. $5 million. The largest city within the highest-risk zone is the nation's capital, Wellington, followed by Hastings then Napier. This type of fault motion is called reverse faulting. electricity returned to 75% of the city. However, the violent magnitude 6.3 earthquake that devastated Christchurch on 22 February 2011 was caused by movement along a fault that does not appear to have broken the surface. The fault plane extends a few kilometres offshore, but not much fault movement occurred beneath the ocean. Presentation given in Christchurch in March 2015. The rupture will produce one of the biggest earthquakes since European settlement of New Zealand, and it will have a major impact on the lives of many people. / Canterbury quake The general region of fault slip is outlined by the aftershocks of the 22 February earthquake. [2], "Second Christchurch fault much better behaved", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christchurch_Fault&oldid=944155164, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 6 March 2020, at 02:08. 2). A rupture of the fault was therefore considered inevitable, with severe damage predicted to the built environment - especially to infrastructure. The white line is the contour where there was no change in height. The Christchurch Fault is an active seismic fault running under the city of Christchurch in the middle of New Zealand's South Island . An earthquake early-warning system is conceivable for the South Island alpine fault and could give people 30 seconds to get out of buildings. I felt the next Christchurch quake (22 February) while at work, and a few aftershocks as well. Both Dunedin and Christchurch are likely to experience shaking and liquefaction in low-lying areas,” Dr. Orchiston said. 3). The 600 kilometer-long (370 mile) faultline on the boundary of the Eurasian and Pacific tectonic plates beneath the country’s South Island produces infrequent but significant earthquakes. Thherewill be no Tsunami in nz if the Alpine goes as it is a *Landbased* fault line. This earthquake produced a visible rent across the landscape that allowed scientists to directly measure the movement of the longest fault segment, the Greendale Fault. Position data from GPS stations (Fig. The block of land south of the fault slid up the fault surface by as much as 2.5 metres on the section of fault near the Avon-Heathcote estuary. The rock on the south side of the fault has moved up and westward by as much as 2.5 metres relative to the rock on the north side of the fault. Chris J. The earthquakes on the Alpine Fault occurred at different times to the earthquakes on the southern Hikurangi Trench, showing that they were not one continuous earthquake rupture. When the Alpine Fault next ruptures it is likely to produce an earthquake with a magnitude of around 8. Compulsory READ: ALPINE FAULT RUPTURE: FACTS Page 3 / 5. fepixie, Jan 29, 11:38pm. Australia gave. tectonic plates, approximately 75%, is taken up on the Alpine Fault, approximately 20% . Christchurch earthquakes of 2010–11 …and near the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, and the Canterbury Plains region from early September 2010 to late December 2011. At 3 AM on May 29, 2013, the South Island’s technological uncon­scious roars […] The Alpine Fault marks the boundary of the Pacific and Australian Plates. The last earthquake on the Alpine Fault was in 1717. Response spectra are very useful tools for analysing the seismic performance of structures. However, the plates are locked and when they overcome these barriers, they produce large but … Even from a distance they are quite disconcerting. The Canterbury Plains could suffer more damage in an Alpine Fault quake than some areas closer to the fault, say researchers - and it is not alone. It will be centred roughly 60km west of Queenstown, in the South Westland area. Domestic help from . It runs from an area close to Riccarton, under the Central City, through the eastern suburbs off the coast of New Brighton.It runs parallel to the more destructive Port Hills Fault that lies 5 km to the south of the Christchurch Fault. Regional planning workshops are being held in each South Island region and once they are completed in April, a coordinated South Island Alpine Fault Earthquake (SAFER) Plan will be developed. Running through the heart of New Zealand's glacier country is the infamous Alpine Fault. The devastating earthquake that tore through Christchurch on Tuesday is the product of a new fault line in the Earth’s crust that seismologists were previously unaware of. The last earthquake on the Alpine Fault was in 1717. Benjamin Mountfort. A mega magnitude eight earthquake on the South Island's Alpine Fault will likely happen in the lifetime of many New Zealanders alive today, scientists warn. Page, Paul H. Denys, Chris F. Pearson, A geodetic study of the Alpine Fault through South Westland: using campaign GPS data to model slip rates on the Alpine Fault, New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 10.1080/00288306.2018.1494006, 61, 3, (359-366), (2018). Earthquakes happen when a fault suddenly breaks. The 2020 New Zealand Earthquake (pronounced "TWENTY-TWENTY", also known as the Alpine Fault Quake and the 2020 South Island Quake) is a magnitude 8.7 earthquake that will occur on the Alpine Fault in New Zealand's South Island at 11:31 (local) on Thursday, June 18th, 2020. I felt the next Christchurch quake (22 February) while at work, and a few aftershocks as well. The deeper parts of the fault, and the westernmost 5 to 6 kilometres of the fault slipped predominantly horizontally by a few tens of centimetres. The nearest fault, the Alpine Fault, lies many hundreds of miles to the west, in — as the name suggests — the Southern Alps. Colours on the fault plane indicate the amount of slip between the two sides of the fault (see Fig. Several faults are scattered across New Zealand’s South Island, and all are associated with the motion of the two tectonic plates. The September 4 earthquake, however, did not occur on the Alpine Fault. The Alpine Fault has a high probability (estimated at 30%) of rupturing in the next 50 years. The Alpine Fault runs northeast from the northern side of the entrance to Milford Sound, through the mountains behind Martins Bay, along the coast beneath the Southern Alps to … 1). In between earthquakes, the Alpine Fault is locked. Magnitude 8 or larger, geologists said in a special edition of the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics last year. The Alpine Fault ruptures—on average—every 330 years with a magnitude 8 earthquake. Fault slip comes to within one kilometre of the ground surface. 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. The images can be combined to show the total amount of shift of the ground surface, both vertically and horizontally, caused by the earthquake (see Fig. In fact, the Alpine Fault, which runs for about 600 kilometers through the South Island, suffered major eruptions in 1717, 1620, 1450, and 1100. It runs from an area close to Riccarton, under the Central City, through the eastern suburbs off the coast of New Brighton. “Just because we didn’t see it in that earthquake in the past, doesn’t mean we won’t see it in the future.” He applies the same caution to the next likely rupture of New Zealand’s largest fault, the Alpine Fault. The way in which the Christchurch earthquake happened was due to the vibration of the ‘Alpine fault’ line which runs for around 600 km through Christchurch (Science, Alpine Fault, 2017). Just after midday on the 22 nd of February 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Christchurch, resulting in 185 deaths.. Seismologist Bill Fry, who is also part of the Resilience to Nature’s Challenges National Science Challenge, was on earthquake duty at GeoNet that day. The main part of the fault thus lies beneath the northern edge of the Port Hills. Ground shaking intensities in Christchurch during an Alpine Fault earthquake will be high enough to cause liquefaction. In between earthquakes, the Alpine Fault is locked. The Christchurch Fault is an active seismic fault running under the city of Christchurch in the middle of New Zealand's South Island.. Away from the main plate boundary faults there are many smaller faults throughout Canterbury. / Our Science The faults are identifiable by the way they deform the ground. The Darfield earthquake had a magnitude of M7.1. However the modelled PGA from an Alpine Fault event … The 2011 Christchurch earthquake, for example, was the result of a 16km fault rupture. Synthetic ground motions from the broadband simulations are generally consistent with PGAs estimated from GMPEs. How often does the Alpine Fault rupture? The 2020 New Zealand Earthquake (pronounced "TWENTY-TWENTY", also known as the Alpine Fault Quake and the 2020 South Island Quake) is a magnitude 8.7 earthquake that will occur on the Alpine Fault in New Zealand's South Island at 11:31 (local) on Thursday, June 18th, 2020. Chemical toilets provided for. When I woke up to feel the first Christchurch earthquake (4 September 2010) my first thought after WTF was whether it was ‘the big one’ expected some time on the Alpine Fault. The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and the 2011 liquefaction of buildings in Christchurch … This earthquake produced a visible rent across the landscape that allowed scientists to directly measure the movement of the longest fault segment, the Greendale Fault. construction standards. The Mw 6.2 Christchurch Earthquake of 22 February 2011 7 . / Hidden fault. Even from a distance they are quite disconcerting. The way in which the Christchurch earthquake happened was due to the vibration of the ‘Alpine fault’ line which runs for around 600 km through Christchurch (Science, Alpine Fault, 2017). The hidden fault that caused the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Geologists and researchers agree an alpine fault earthquake poses the main seismic hazard in the South Island. Such a duration is comparable to the duration observed in Christchurch from the 2010 M27.1 Darfield earthquake. All these cities have experienced severe earthquakes since European settlement. We expect that details of the fault location and slip distribution will be updated in the future, as we incorporate more data and use more sophisticated data analysis techniques. the Farmy Army-800 farmers with machines. Figure 2: Diagram showing the amount and direction of slip of the rock between the two sides of the fault. Movement of land on either side of the fault plane was mixture of vertical motion and sideways slip (Fig. As a direct result of the fault slip, the Bexley, Aranui, Wainoni, Avondale and New Brighton areas have gone down, mostly by less than 15 centimetres. The red, green and yellow coloured symbols show some of the GPS stations whose displacements were used to derive the fault slip model. I felt the next Christchurch quake (22 February) while at work, and a few aftershocks as well. It runs parallel to the more destructive Port Hills Fault that lies 5 km to the south of the Christchurch Fault. 30,000. Mark Horstman heads to earthquake-ravaged Christchurch and meets the seismologists who are investigating the fault line that caused the damage. documented earthquake events causing surface rupture along other fault lines akin or adjacent to the Alpine Fault which give us some measure of what we might be in for when the predicted large event occurs. The fault rupture (Fig. The duration of shaking is expected to last over 3 minutes for an Alpine Fault earthquake and at least 20 seconds for a Hope fault earthquake. In the line of fire is the small town of Franz Josef, just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the often-visited Franz Josef glacier in … AF8 is focused on planning for this event in the South Island, but some North Island CDEM groups are also taking the Alpine Fault into account in their planning. It happened along an east-west fault that had not been identified before. Photo: Getty Images. Over the next few seconds the rupture spread upwards and towards the northwest, with the amount of slip increasing with time. The Alpine Fault creates the earthquake by the opposite sides rubbing against each other after tension has built up between the two. 50-100 years to completely recover. The two plates meet at the Alpine Fault, which runs up the western edge of the Southern Alps, before splitting into four main faults through North Canterbury and Marlborough – the Wairau, Awatere, Clarence and Hope faults. However, there may be additional subsidence as a result of ground compaction and liquefaction during the strong shaking. Share. [1], The Christchurch fault is believed to have been responsible for a series of earthquakes that rocked the city on Boxing Day of 2010. The worst-affected areas if the Alpine Fault were to rupture have been revealed. 6 months on-repairs. [1] The Southern Alps have been uplifted on the fault over the last 12 million years in a series of earthquakes. The rarest is from a major rupture of the Alpine Fault – around a magnitude 8 event. and so willsend any waves overseas! Earthquake hits South Island's Alpine Fault; How large? It comes after scientists claimed the Alpine Fault is overdue for an earthquake that could reshape the South Island. 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake 2011 Christchurch earthquake Alpine Fault ChristChurch Cathedral Volcanology of New Zealand. In terms of the way the previous material has been set out in this resource, and because there is so much available about the Alpine Fault, it has been decided to treat material about … The 3.24am quake was 5km deep and reported by more than 600 people around Queenstown and Wanaka. These instruments are designed specifically for recording strong ground shaking. Figure 1: This Google map image shows the fault plane (rectangular area) across the southern part of Christchurch and northern Port Hills. 1) before and after the earthquake was analysed, using measurements from both existing continuous GPS stations and temporary stations installed after the earthquake. Running through the heart of New Zealand’s glacier country is the infamous Alpine Fault. In 1873 a new resident architect, New Zealander Benjamin Mountfort, took over and construction began again. Canterbury. The fault is not a vertical cut through the earth, but rather it dips towards the south at an angle of about 65 degrees from the horizontal. In September 2010, Christchurch was shaken by the magnitude 7.1 Darfield earthquake, caused by movement along faults west of the city on the Canterbury Plains. The Alpine Fault can produce magnitude 8 earthquakes and does so about every 300 to 350 years. This is called a ‘Transform boundary’. Alpine Fault. Brendon Bradley, professor in earthquake engineering at the University of Canterbury, has created a computer simulation of the likely impact of a magnitude 8 earthquake on the Alpine Fault. This was one of the main faults that caused the Canterbury earthquake of 2010. The land has gone up as much as 40 centimetres around the western side of the Avon-Heathcote estuary. Home AcknowledgementsFor discussions and sharing of early results: Pierre Briole, ENS, France; Marcello de Michele, BRGM, France; Eric Fielding, JPL, USA; SARmap group, Switzerland; INGV, Italy; GSI, Japan; Shaun Levick, Caroline Holden, Bill Fry, Stephen Bannister, Martin Reyners, all at GNS. A powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake, occurred on the Greendale Fault at 4:35 am on 4 September 2010 local time (16:35 3 September UTC). Scientists didn't know of. There are three major known earthquake threat sources to Christchurch – and although all differ in their magnitude and distance from the city, all are expected to result in around the same amount of ground shaking. It will be centred roughly 60km west of Queenstown, in the South Westland area. Duration: 10min … 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. There is still additional work to do to locate these aftershocks precisely, at which time they may provide additional detail on the fault rupture. A big quake on the Alpine Fault could block South Island highways in more than 120 places and leave 10,000 people cut off, new research has estimated. Despite catastrophic damage in the city, its area of impact was about 50km. These four short videos explain why we are taking the Alpine Fault so seriously and help you understand how you can be prepared for the disruption to normal life that a severe earthquake will cause. 2). Rebuild. It may have been responsible for a moderate earthquake that shook the city in 1869. The Alpine Fault ruptures—on average—every 330 years with a magnitude 8 earthquake. It is possible that a large Alpine Fault earthquake could also rupture the western part of some faults of the Marlborough Fault … Scientists have thus had to rely on measurements using a variety of techniques and instruments to determine its location and the nature of its movement. North Canterbury residents will have a chance to hear from leading natural hazard scientist, Professor Tom Wilson of University Of Canterbury about the impacts and consequences of a future magnitude 8 earthquake along the Alpine Fault, and how people can become better prepared for it. The direction of movement—up and towards the northwest—focussed the energy of the earthquake towards Christchurch and helps explain the severe damage in the city. Now we do. "New Zealand has excellent earthquake standards in its building codes, but those standards were much more stringent on the Alpine fault to the west of Christchurch … Within 3 days... 80% of roads and 50% of footpaths were repaired. The fault rupture started with a small amount of slip between the two sides of the fault at about 6 km depth. The Hope Fault is an active dextral (right lateral) strike-slip fault in the northeastern part of South Island, New Zealand.It forms part of the Marlborough Fault System, which accommodates the transfer of displacement along the oblique convergent boundary between the Indo-Australian Plate and Pacific Plate, from the transform Alpine Fault to the Hikurangi Trench subduction zone. 2 ALPINE FAULT EARTHQUAKE 2.1 Alpine Fault The Alpine Fault is the largest active fault in New Zealand and extends over 650km on land from Milford Sound to Blenheim. The top of the fault lies at a depth of about a kilometre beneath the surface, and the rupture extends down along the fault plane for about seven kilometres. Hirat lies close to the Hari Rud fault, but because of this fault’s low slip rate, large earthquakes are infrequent. This raised part of the Port Hills and part of southern Christchurch. The Port Hills have gone up by varying amounts, from about 5 centimetres under Lyttelton Harbour to a maximum of about 25 centimetres at the base of the hills near the Heathcote valley. In September 2010, Christchurch was shaken by the magnitude 7.1 Darfield earthquake, caused by movement along faults west of the city on the Canterbury Plains. / Recent Events Because the fault doesn’t break the surface, the land overlying the top of the fault has been slightly folded, with the south side warped upward and the north side down (see Fig. Kandahar, being located in south-eastern Afghanistan, is farther removed from tectonic movements in the northeast and is located well away from the Chaman fault, further decreasing its … 0 Comments. The Alpine Fault runs for about 600km up the spine of the South Island, and is one of the world’s major geological features. Relative to the fault, the land north of the fault shifted eastward while the land to the south of the fault shifted westward. When I woke up to feel the first Christchurch earthquake (4 September 2010) my first thought after WTF was whether it was ‘the big one’ expected some time on the Alpine Fault. It runs from an area close to Riccarton, under the Central City, through the eastern suburbs off the coast of New Brighton. For GPS data: LINZ, especially Josh Thomas and Dave Collett; GeoNet; Geosystems/Trimble New Zealand; Global Survey; Andersen & Associates, especially Brent George; Christchurch City Council; Otago University. / Natural Hazards and Risks and 1.2 seconds. Such a duration is comparable to the duration observed in Christchurch from the 2010 Mw 7.1 Darfield earthquake. 50%g respectively during an Alpine fault earthquake, while ground motions in Christchurch are expected to be moderate, with peak ground accelerations (PGAs) of 8%g expected from an Alpine event and 6%g from a Hope fault event. Written by Geoff Chapple ISSUE 125 The earthquake struck approximately 50 km to the west-northwest of Christchurch, the largest population center in the region, and about 80-90 km to the south and east of the current expression of the Australia-Pacific plate boundary through the island (the Alpine and Hope faults). This video shows another validation case to test our Bullet Constraints Builder add-on for Blender with as part of our research. Sure the Alpine will noot be acake walk for many. Radar images taken from satellites before and after the earthquake were analysed. "Christchurch has never been identified as a major earthquake zone, because no one knew this fault ran beneath," says a seismologist at the British Geological Survey. Christchurch Earthquake. The most probable ground shaking intensities tor a magnitude B earthquake On the Alpine Fault, which is the largest earthquake likely to occur on faults close to Canterbury The Alpine Fault can produce magnitude 8 earthquakes and does so about every 300 to 350 years. Figure 3: Image indicating ground displacement made by combining satellite radar images taken before and after the earthquake. South of Ross, effectively all The contour lines indicate the amount (in mm) the land has risen (blue contours) or subsided (red contours) due to the slip on the fault. Just as the Kaikōura earthquake in 2016 had a significant impact on Wellington, we expect that when the Alpine Fault ruptures in a large magnitude earthquake it will be widely felt across the lower North Island. For CSK satellite radar data: e-GEOS, an ASI/Telespazio company, especially Andrea Celentano. In fact, the Alpine Fault, which runs for about 600 kilometers through the South Island, suffered major eruptions in 1717, 1620, 1450, and 1100. “I thought we’d dodged a bullet with the Darfield earthquake,” says Bill. Central, northern and northeastern Christchurch have also gone down, but generally by less than 5 centimetres. The red star shows the location where the fault rupture started. He said it gave the most detailed information yet about the sort of impact a major Alpine Fault earthquake would have on different parts of the South Island. The fault, which runs about 600km up the western side of the South Island, poses one of the biggest natural threats to New Zealand. Canterbury earthquake. Movement was modelled using the ground shaking recorded during the earthquake by “strong-motion” seismometers. Large earthquakes are less common along the central Alpine Fault, where the plates are not subducting and the forces are accommodated in different ways. Queenstown residents were woken up early on Sunday morning by a relatively shallow magnitude 5.5 tremor, centred just northeast of Milford Sound on the Alpine Fault. When I woke up to feel the first Christchurch earthquake (4 September 2010) my first thought after WTF was whether it was ‘the big one’ expected some time on the Alpine Fault. 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 next major rupture of the South Island's Alpine Fault will be one of the largest - if not the biggest - earthquake Kiwis have ever experienced. The suburbs of Heathcote and Redcliffs lie above the fault, resulting in heavy damage and extensive rockfalls. Waimakariri District Council media release: 10th November 2020. The coloured image shows an “interference pattern” derived from X-band radar images taken on 19 and 23 February 2011 by the Italian Cosmo-SkyMed satellite. Christchurch earthquake. Different forecasts have put the probability of a future Alpine Fault quake measuring over 8.0 as high as 65 per cent within the next 50 years - and almost 85 per cent over 100 years. but wholesale death and destruction isunlikely, any links( no matter who they are from) is onlyconjection, not truth, as you said in other thread how many geologists/scientists were around to prove what they say is true. CTV building didn't meet. Each colour cycle represents 1.5 centimetres of ground displacement, so the total displacement between the western edge of the image and central Christchurch is about 25 centimetres. Even from a … An Alpine Fault rupture could produce one of the most destructive earthquakes since European settlement of New Zealand because of its geologic characteristics. The Alpine Fault, running up the South Island, has an earthquake nearly every 300 years. The For processing of the radar data: Mahdi Motagh. It runs virtually the whole length of the West Coast Region, with the high mountains to its east and the lower hill lands and alluvial flats to its west. Based on data from GPS stations, satellite radar images, seismographs and strong-motion recorders, the fault that caused the 22 February earthquake lies within about six kilometres of the city centre, along the southern edge of the city. That caused the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake Alpine fault, New Zealand s. Ruptures it is a * Landbased * fault line it comes after scientists claimed the Alpine fault in! And Wanaka Chapple ISSUE 125 the 3.24am quake was 5km deep and by. Natural Hazards and Risks / Recent Events / Canterbury quake / hidden fault that caused the damage this type christchurch earthquake alpine fault... 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