The first of two planned boreholes into the Alpine Fault has been completed.
The longest active fault in New Zealand, the research (being spearheaded by CRI GNS Science) aims to better understand the fault’s behaviour, and how it has fractured.
An accompanying Checkpoint piece can be listened to here.
An excerpt: (read in full here)
“Mr Sutherland says the research involves three stages – the first drilling a core of rock to reveal the structure of the fault.
“Scanning equipment will then be lowered into the hole to provide various information about the fault, including the way it has fractured.
“Finally, permanent monitoring equipment will be lowered to create a deep fault zone observatory, enabling GeoNet to record earthquakes that are 100 times smaller than it can currently detect.”