
New Zealand Earthquake

The country of New Zealand is listed among the earth’s most active places for seismic activity. Earthquakes happen there more often anda continuously.
Seismic activity together with volcanism is the result of plate tectonics and New Zealand is located on the active boundary of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates.
Movements of the crust of the earth along faults that are active result in tectonic activities and earthquakes. The Alpine Fault along with other active faults of New Zealand are some of the earth’s major geological areas.
Earthquakes happen often along these faults, although many of these are not felt because they are not strong enough. Still, several others. although stronger, do not cause damage. Nevertheless. New Zealand still has a record of severe damage and injury as the result of greater earthquakes. Throughout the geological history of New Zealand. activities of the crust of the earth and earthquakes have always existed. This type of tectonic activity is one of the major determining factors in the landforms development in New Zealand. Several lakes. mountain ranges, and coastlines are just some of these landforms which resulted from tectonic activity in New Zealand.
Approximately fourteen thousand recorded earthquakes hit New Zealand every year. Most are too small to be felt, but about a hundred to a hundred and fifty are sufficiently intense to be felt. Several earthquakes happen in the Axial Tectonic Belt. This is where a lot of the distortion caused by the impact of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates Occur
The active oceanic plates’ subduction is dierectly responsible for the cavernous earthquakes in the South Islands southwest and those of the North Island. New Zealand s most active tectonic region is without a doubt. the Axial Tectonic Belt. The Axial Tectonic Belt stretches from both islands of New Zealand. from the eastern North Island to Marlborough’s Southern Alps in Fiordland.
The Axial Tectonic Belt includes New Zealand’s most important fault systems such as the Southern Alp’s Alpine Fault. Marlborough’s Hope Fault. and the Shear Belt in North Island.
Located on the Alpine Faults northwest is the province of Nelson-Westland tectonic. It has a number of faults and has been subjected to major and numerous earthquakes in the previous century, although this is though of as unusual in the perspective of history. The Volcanic Zones of Taupo has been New Zealand’s most active volcanic region since the last million and a half years. The subduction of the Pacific plate under the North Island is the culprit for this. This is a region of high rates of earthquakes which are shallow, where the crust of the earth has been thinning and spreading, and along a vast rift has subsided by 2 to 3 kilometers.
For last twenty five million years, the New Zealand landmass which is located over the margin between the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates has been active. The activities of the plates, and the deformation which results from this on the crust of the earth, have influenced strongly the physical shape of New Zealand today. as well as that of many of its landforms.