In a statement released earlier this week, the Earthquake Commission announced it was giving $68,000 to a research project led by University of Otago earthquake science chairman Mark Stirling, of Dunedin.
The project researches the potential of earthquakes occurring in "low seismicity" or low earthquake hazard zones.
In the statement, Prof Stirling said his research team had a "hit list" of earthquake fault lines to study.
The team would research fault lines in Otago first.
"We'll be digging trenches and looking at when they have ruptured and how big the earthquake most likely was. That will give us an indication of what hazard it might pose for the future."
His earlier work on the Akatore Fault near Dunedin revealed periods where nothing happened for at least 100,000 years, then, suddenly, three earthquakes hit within 10,000 years, two of which struck within the past 1300 years.
"The biggest danger in an area like Otago is that we don't think there is going to be an earthquake on one of these quiet faults, so we don't prepare as much as we would in somewhere like Wellington.
"These might be earthquakes that only come along over periods of thousands, or even tens of thousands of years. But when they do, they can be quite damaging.
"And Dunedin, with its beautiful old buildings and unreinforced masonry could be more at risk than Dunedinites think."
People in Dunedin focus on the Alpine Fault being the "worst case earthquake source" for the city, but the more local faults such as the Akatore should be of much greater concern, he said.
- STAFF REPORTER
