Project Period: Now - September 2021
Organisations: GNS Science, NIWA, Victoria University of Wellington, Massey University, University of Auckland, University of Otago, and the University of Canterbury
Project Funders: Endeavour Fund, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (New Zealand)
Project Location: East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand
Nō te tau, rua mano, tekau mā ono, tae noa atu ki te tau rua mano, e rua tekau mā tahi, ka rangahau tētahi whakaminenga kaipūtaiao nō Aotearoa, nō tāwāhi hoki i te paenga papaneke o Hikurangi kia whai mārama ai i ngā tūraru ka pāngia rānei ki Aotearoa nei. He āinga whakararo te paenga papaneke o Hikurangi nei, ā, kei reira ka āia te papaneke moana o Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa ki raro tonu i papaneke paparahi o Te Pāpaka-a-Māui. Nā te āinga whakararo e pērā ana ko tētahi momo hapa, ā, he nui ngā rū whenua me ngā tai āniwhaniwha ka hua ake, pērā me Sumatra i te tau rua mano mā whā, pērā me Hiri i te tau rua mano mā tekau, pērā hoki me Hapani i te tau rua mano tekau mā tahi. Ka tauakitia ngā mahi a kaipūtaiao nō Aotearoa e te pūtea nanaiore a Te Hīkina Whakatutuki.
A large team of national and international scientists will be studying the Hikurangi plate boundary to find out what risk it poses to New Zealand. The Hikurangi plate boundary is where the Pacific tectonic plate subducts (or dives underneath) the Australian tectonic plate and is what scientists call a subduction zone.
The Hikurangi subduction zone is poorly understood, yet potentially the largest source of earthquake and tsunami hazard in New Zealand. Subduction zones are a type of fault and are responsible for the largest and most powerful earthquakes and tsunamis in the world, such as Sumatra 2004, Chile 2010, and Japan 2011. We know that the Hikurangi subduction zone can produce large earthquakes and tsunamis, and that these events have occurred in the past. However, we don’t know how often these earthquakes tend to happen, nor do we know how large they can be.
A large component of the project involves building and installing seafloor sensors off the East Coast to detect offshore earthquakes, slow slip events, and reveal New Zealand’s offshore plate tectonic movements for the first time. Similar types of sensors could be used in tsunami and earthquake early warning systems in the future and will create new technological capability for New Zealand. Part of this project provides resources for New Zealand scientists to work on the new data being collected by visiting specialised research ships that carry out drilling and seismic imaging. This data will tell them about the physical conditions and rock types at the plate boundary, and reveal what is causing the Hikurangi subduction zone to move slowly (in slow slip events) or suddenly (in earthquakes). This helps scientists understand what has influenced earthquakes and tsunamis in the past, so they can better anticipate what might happen in the future.
The scientists will also be gathering geological and historical evidence for past large Hikurangi earthquakes to improve our understanding of subduction zone hazards posed to New Zealand. This involves collecting offshore cores and studying coastal sediments to explore the geological record of past earthquake and tsunami events. They will be working with iwi partners to integrate Mātauranga Māori of past Hikurangi earthquakes and tsunami.
For more information check out these three project fact sheets:
13 November 2020
Scientists from New Zealand, Japan, and the United States are currently involved in two back-to-back voyages to inv...
12 November 2019
Data collected from the Hikurangi subduction zone by an international team of scientists led by GNS Science shows t...
29 October 2019
An international team of scientists sets off today onboard NIWA’s specialised research vessel Tangaroa to collect...
3 May 2019
Four of the country’s leading scientists will share the latest research into New Zealand’s largest and most act...
16 April 2019
Beneath the North Island of New Zealand there is a restless sleeper. Usually the sleeper is just breathing deeply b...
30 November 2018
Hawke’s Bay people had the opportunity to learn more about New Zealand’s largest fault, the Hikurangi subductio...
1 November 2018
Geophysicist Laura Wallace of GNS Science was today named as a
26 October 2018
Valuable insights into the risk of earthquakes and tsunami from New Zealand’s largest fault line will be gained a...
5 October 2018
An international team of scientists sets off this weekend to place earthquake monitoring instruments along New Zeal...
5 May 2018
Stretching down the length of the North Island’s east coast lies a sleeping geological giant - the Hikurangi subd...
18 April 2018
Two world-class subseafloor observatories are now operating at the northern Hikurangi subduction zone where the Pac...
12 March 2018
An ambitious mission to lower two sub-seafloor observatories into the Hikurangi subduction zone east of the North I...
1 February 2018
Teachers have the opportunity to sign up for a live 'ship-to-shore' video experience with scientists on bo...
19 December 2017
Scientists on board the research vessel JOIDES Resolution have carefully lowered the winning entries from the Eas.....
24 November 2017
Te Hapara Primary School and Gisborne Boys’ High take out top honours in the recent Hikurangi Plate Boundary comp...
15 June 2017
Communities on the East Coast of the North Island will get the opportunity to find out more about a research progra...
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