Campbell Live’s Tristram Clayton and Whena Owen interviewed GNS scientists last night about the latest findings on central New Zealand’s ‘megathrust’ quake zone.
We already know that New Zealand is earthquake-prone and that the Hikurangi Margin, where the Australian Plate pushes down on the Pacific Plate, is a hotspot.
However scientists have now found evidence, after analysing sediment cores from a salt marsh near Blenheim, that the Hikurangi Margin has caused two major earthquakes of 7 plus magnitudes in the past 1000 years.
The Campbell Live team asked GNS scientists Ursula Cochran and Graham Leonard to explain the research and what the findings mean for those of us living in the area today.