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The islands of North and South New Zealand are getting closer and closer after the devastating Kaikoura earthquake two years ago, the national scientific body revealed.
The magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the upper part of the South Island in 2016 and had originally brought the two continents closer to five meters, but GNS Science has now found that unstable fault lines continued to bring them together.
Sigrún Hreinsdóttir, geodesic scientist at GNS Science, told Stuff that Cape Campbell, located atop the South Island, was now about 35 cm closer to Wellington since the earthquake.
Hreinsdóttir said that it was difficult to identify the flaw responsible for post-earthquake creep. "In reality, we have all this galley going on and the question is to know [fault] is the dominant factor? "
Hreinsdóttir's team said that the island's shift from south to north would continue for years, but the pace of movement would slow down.
After the earthquake, the researchers determined that the earthquake had also raised some eight-meter areas. They described the quake as "complicated" and said it had led to an in-depth rethinking of the science of earthquakes after opening a world record of 25 faults.
Numerous studies by local and international scientists on the Kaikoura earthquake are underway, as the data collected at the time are among the best in the world, using satellite imagery, field observations, GPS data, and more. lift data from the coast.
Dr. Kevin Berryman, Senior GNS Scientist, said, "It was certainly unusual for 25 faults to break simultaneously during the Kaikōura earthquake.
"It is fair to say that all earthquakes of magnitude 7.5 and above are invariably very complex … We must be willing to live with a level of risk, but we should ask ourselves what risk is acceptable."
"It's a challenge for us [New Zealand] to provide the expected levels of service in the face of such high geological risks. "
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