Shortly after midnight, last night, a severe earthquake struck the South Island. The full extent of the damage is not clear yet, and of course the members of the Ru network think about those affected by this event.

The seismic networks computed the thrust motion on the fault in a matter of minutes, and in this case the motion on the fault warranted a tsunami warning.

The New Zealand Herald features an article with the first reactions from geonet scientists. The mention of the Hope Fault is interesting. This fault is the southern-most fault of the Marlborough Faults (as far as we know!), which extend from the Alpine Fault. However, both Geonet and the USGS indicate a more southern placement of the epicentre. Besides, the Hope Fault is a strike-slip fault, whereas this event was a thrust fault! We at Ru wouldn’t be surprised if this event was slip (or slips, plural) on a combination of faults. In any case, there will much to learn from this event in the coming time. A discussion about the complexity of the tectonics in this area has already been posted on the USGS website.

Meanwhile, you can expect hundreds of aftershocks to fill your station helicorder screens in the coming days and weeks. If you get this message on Monday November 14th (local New Zealand time), you can see much of the action on our network page, similar to the image at the top of this post from Birkenhead Primary School.

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