Kaikōura wasn’t just the most complex earthquake ever recorded, it also moved the ground further than most other known earthquakes, says Victoria University student researcher Jesse Kearse.
For his Master’s degree, funded by the Earthquake Commission (EQC), Kearse studied how the Earth’s surface was shifted sideways along the 83km stretch of the Jordan, Kekerengu, and offshore Needles faults. The goal was to explore what has happened on the land and to help understand what might happen to the ground in a future quake.
“The science community also took the opportunity to test out the newest measurement technology, InSAR, which uses satellites to measure what happens on the ground,” Kearse said. “With our team of geologists actually walking the paddocks with measuring tapes (and other survey gear), we were able to show that the InSAR technology was accurate to within one metre.
“So in future, scientists will be able to do some of this kind of work from a desk, delivering data and information for emergency managers and landowners much faster,” he added.
Richard Smith of EQC, meanwhile, said the research has great practical applications for New Zealand.
“It’s shown us that we can’t use overseas prediction models for what’s actually going to happen on the ground surface, and it gives us valuable data to put into our own New Zealand National Seismic Hazard Model,” Smith added.
“The other really useful result of this research is that it effectively gave us a live test of the new InSAR technology, which can also be used to measure other land movements like landslides.”
