University of Otago geologists Dr Andrew Gorman and Dr
Virginia Toy (front), pictured with two portable
seismographs, are getting ready for a research field trip,
as are geology students Betina Fleming (rear left) and
Hannah Scott. Photo by Jane Dawber.
University of Otago geologists are preparing to take part
in an international research project which may help clarify the
likelihood and effects of a future massive earthquake on the
Alpine Fault.
The Alpine Fault is a major tectonic plate-bounding fault
that is expected to fail in large earthquakes every 200 to
400 years.
It last ruptured in 1717.
Two of the project's co-ordinators, Otago geologists Dr
Virginia Toy and Dr Andrew Gorman, will leave Dunedin
tomorrow, heading for the West Coast area where an
international drilling programme involving the Alpine Fault
is planned.
Preparations for drilling are expected to start on January 24
at Gaunt Creek, near Whataroa.
Dr Toy said that several senior Otago researchers and
research students would be involved in drill-core-sample
recovery and logging during the first phase of the planned
drilling-related research, known as DFDP-1, this summer.
Otago is dealing with the collection and logging all of the
core samples from the drill hole and with on-site logistics.
Dr Gorman is also co-ordinating a seismic surveying project
involving collaboration with scientists from Canterbury and
Auckland universities, the Victoria University of Wellington,
GNS Science, the University of Alberta, Canada and the
Technical University of Freiburg, in Germany.
Dr Gorman is co-ordinating a group of about 30 researchers,
including a sizeable group from Otago, which will undertake
seismic experiments, using explosives, along a 6.5km-long
section of the Whataroa Valley, to gain a clearer picture of
the fault structure to a depth of up to 5km.
A total of 26 portable seismographs, most of them from
abroad, will be deployed during the research.
Determining the Alpine Fault zone structure well below the
earth's surface was "crucial for understanding not only what
conditions govern earthquake rupture" but also how ongoing
faulting produced mountain ranges such as the Southern Alps,
he said.
- john.gibb@odt.co.nz
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