Kaikoura seafloor shows “amazing resilience” in the aftermath of the 2016 earthquake

Barry Fleming (NIWA) and Mark Symons (MMT) with Hugins AUV aboard RV Tangaroa to study the Kaikōura seafloor. Photo: Supplied/Lana Young

NIWA says the Kaikoura seafloor has shown “amazing resilience” to upheaval from the 2016 earthquake.

At that time, the approximately 7.8-magnitude earthquake destroyed some ecosystems in the Kaikoura Valley in the Hikurangi Marine Reserve.

But Katie Bigham, a doctoral student at NIWA and Victoria University of Wellington, said many marine organisms have returned and parts of the sea floor are on the way to fully recovering.

“The earthquake triggered a very complex ‘full-flow event’ that reshaped the valley floor and transported 850 megatons of sediment along the Hikurangi Channel. This was inevitably devastating to the abundant marine life in the area, New Zealand’s only deep-sea marine reserve,” Bigham said. “.

“However, it also provided a rare opportunity to study the effects of the earthquake underwater on seafloor communities. It is encouraging that the ecosystem is showing great resilience – many marine organisms have returned, with some parts on the way to a full recovery.”

The bottom of Kaikoura rose from the ground after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake. Photo: @lou_gordongreen

NIWA already had a lot of information about Kaikōura’s deep-sea environment — including thousands of photos.

The scientists were able to compare those images taken weeks, months and even years after the earthquake.

NIWA said those images showed the extent of the “catastrophe” the quake had wrought on the sea floor — but within months, some species of fish and sea cucumbers had begun to return.

Four years after the quake, NIWA said the sea floor is starting to look the same as it did before the quake — but it could take up to 12 years for it to fully recover.

Sally Watson aboard the RV Tangaroa to study the sea floor. Photo: Supplied/Lana Young

NIWA’s principal scientist in marine ecology and professor of marine biology at Victoria University of Wellington, Dr Ashley Rudin, said it was the nature of “the volatile environment that makes it such a resilient ecosystem”.

“We think this habitat can easily recover because it is an area that is often at the mercy of Mother Nature.

“The earthquake was one event in 140 years, which may seem rare, but in evolutionary terms, it’s the blink of an eye. This means that marine life there has regularly been subjected to massive stresses like earthquakes, and so species adapt to be resilient to it.”

“This is like when our bodies are exposed to pathogens and vaccines, it makes our immune system more resilient to disease so we can recover faster.”

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