Study evidence of past seismic events in New Zealand

Scientists have begun drilling at a beach on the southern coast of the North Island, looking for clues about earthquakes and tsunamis that occurred in the past.

Photo by Dr. Nicola Litchfield: Dom Thomas

The study, which took two years to reach this point, is part of a larger project to investigate earthquake risks in the region.

It’s called Project It’s Our fault and it’s funded by the Earthquake Commission, Wellington City Council, and Wellington Regional Office of Emergency Management.

It aims to improve the region’s understanding of the risks posed by earthquakes and tsunamis.

The scientists – Dr. Nicolas Litchfield and Dr. Andrew Howell – stayed at Te Humenga Point, near Cape Palliser, which was the perfect setting.

Dr Litchfield said: “One of the advantages is that there are a series of beach hills in places along the coast, and in fact are higher elevations as well.”

“We think they rose up in individual earthquakes.”

Yesterday, they dug four separate pits on four separate hills, extending further and further away from the waterfront.

Now, the rest of the week, they’ll be combing those trenches for the little treasures stored in the ground.

“We are sweeping the sides of these trenches to try to find the shells within the coastal sediments,” said Dr. Hoyle.

“Once we have these shells, we can send them to the Radio Carbon Laboratory, and have a lifetime of the projectile, which we can then use to record the date of the earthquake that pushed up the coast.”

They have already had some success.

“Especially in the farthest crater, we were able to find some shells to date, so we carefully sampled them.

Photo by Dr. Andrew Howells: Dom Thomas

“We also found in this stone some pumice, and pebbles, and it is likely to be Taupo pumice, which was from the Taupo eruption about 1,700 years ago, so we already know that these two beach hills are smaller than 1,700 years ago.”

Knowing the age of the shells, it is hoped that they could ascertain the frequency and magnitude of seismic activity in this part of the country.

Age can also be compared to other earthquake sites from the rest of the region, to determine the fault that caused any earthquake.

Dr. Litchfield said: “For example, the sites that we do here, if the earthquake ages of the shells match the ages of some of the stands [or] Coastal hills north of Cape Palliser, that might tell us that the uplift is occurring in the Palliser Kaiwhara Fault that is offshore.

“It might be seven to seven and a half strong, and a tsunami.”

Scientists have dug four separate pits on four separate hills, extending further and further away from the waterfront. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas

One or more of the coastal hills could be associated with an earthquake caused by the Hicurangi subduction zone, where the Pacific and Australian Plates meet about 15 to 20 km below the Cape Palazzo.

Dr Howell said the frequency and magnitude of earthquakes caused by the region remained unclear.

“The only thing we can say with any degree of confidence is that Lake Wairau, which is in Blenheim, which fell in the last two subduction earthquakes, is in this part of the subduction zone.

“If that part goes up and that part goes down, that gives us a lot of information about what the earthquake looks like.”

Knowing the size, frequency, and impact of earthquakes is critical for those preparing for earthquake responses.

“That’s kind of a pillar of a lot of other research that a lot of other people are doing about risk in the Wellington area,” said Dr. Howell.

“But they need to know what earthquakes look like on the faults here, to do their job.”

Although they will not be able to tell the exact time when another earthquake will happen, they should at least be given more clues and mean that everyone is more prepared for another earthquake.

Scientists will remain on the site for the rest of the week, before heading to the labs to complete carbon dating.

The first results are expected in late June.

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