New Zealand was rock by a muscular and peculiar earthquake this calendar month , record as a 7.8M. Occurring at the boundary between two different types of architectonic limit , scientists are still uncertain what type of earthquake it was , what caused it , and whether it was one or two close spaced quakes .

Either manner , the damage to the area was extensive and spectacular – in one striking exercise , the seafloor off the eastern coast was find to haverisen by as much as 2 meters(6.6 feet ) . Now , as reported by theNew Zealand Herald , scientist have care to photograph some of the fresh faulting that were stimulate by this fantastically potent temblor .

Looking around Kaikoura – a extremely damaged townsfolk near the epicenter – Dr Kate Pedley , a geologist at the University of Canterbury find a 3 - kilometer - wide ( 1.86 Roman mile ) zone full of ruptures , stone falls , depression , collapse , and crevasses . It ’s safe to say that any conjectural city posit in the countryside near Kaikoura would have been damage fairly importantly by the 7.8 M quake .

Dr Ursula Cochran , a geoscientist working at GNS Science , has also written ablog postrelated to the quake . She talk of the Kekerengu Fault , the fastest err fault within 100 kilometers ( 62 miles ) from the capital city Wellington , and attached to a fundamental subduction zona wherein part of the Pacific Plate is destructive slew beneath the Indo - Australian Plate .

geologist had calculated that three major earthquakes had taken place on this fault line within the last 1,250 years , and that a powerful earth tremor would be expected once every 300 to 400 years .

“ Then , two calendar week ago , as if to say , ‘ Do n’t underrate me ! ’ the fault ruptured right through those same trenches , ” Cochran writes .

“ When the Kekerengu Fault incite as part of the 7.8 M Kaikoura earthquake the impacts on the landscape were spectacular , ” she contribute , note that “ one side of the fault has moved as much as 11 meter [ 36 understructure ] with respect to the other side . ”

Although the Kekerengu Fault slipping was n’t the cause of the 7.8 M earthquake , the mainshock on November 13 was powerful enough to make this fussy fault to tear . In fact , it was one of seven others that simultaneously activated when the principal fault slipped . To date , it is still ill-defined as to which particular error is the touch off one .

New Zealand continues to be rock by aftershock of order of magnitude up to 4.5M. As of November 29 , there have been 6,580 of them .

Although it ’s unlikely there will be another 7.8 M temblor or bully in the next few years in the same place , some experts have suggested that there is as much of a32 percent chanceof a 7.0 M aftershock take place within the next twain of calendar week .

[ H / T : New Zealand Herald ]