What we've learnt 10 years on from Kaikōura earthquake

Detailed summary

Ten years have passed since the devastating Kaikōura earthquake, an event that took the lives of two people, demolished homes and led to changes in the country's seismic modelling.

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Ten years have passed since the devastating Kaikōura earthquake, an event that took the lives of two people, demolished homes and led to changes in the country's seismic modelling.

Earth Sciences New Zealand volcanologist Graham Leonard told RNZ Saturday Mornings there was a lot to learn after the natural hazard struck.

"Global scientists learned a lot from this too. We realised that these large earthquakes can actually be across many faults at the same time."

He explained that earthquakes were typically the result of stress built up for hundreds of years across a plane and across a region.

Once the fault couldn't hold the stress, it began to unzip from a point that was the epicentre, then later transferred that stress onto other fault-lines.

"Our national seismic hazard model underwent a major revision and, globally, our understanding of the way earthquakes rupture and unzip changed with this event."

Immediately after the earthquake Leonard said there were "geological detectives in the air", taking photographs and assessing the damage for clues.

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