Paul Gorman writes in The Press about work by international scientists, to take place on NZ’s West Coast, aiming to understand how large faults evolve and generate earthquakes.
The scientists will drill down into the Alpine Fault on the South Island – one of only a few such sites in the world.
An excerpt: (read in full here)
“GNS Science said the project would be one of New Zealand’s largest field-based experiments and was an example of “big science”.
“It will involve 100 or more scientists and require funding from New Zealand, Germany, Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia.
“”Scientists have dreamed about doing this for decades,” GNS spokesman John Callan said.
“”The Alpine Fault is late in its earthquake cycle, so it is seen as a great opportunity to investigate one of the top faults in New Zealand by putting a range of probes down into the zone where earthquakes occur.
“”It has been their goal, almost a holy grail of earth sciences.””