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The Alpine Fault is the on-land boundary between the Pacific and Australian plates that runs almost the length of the South Island.
Claire Concannon catches up with a team from Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington as they install a seismic sensor on the fault line near Whataroa on the West Coast. This is one in a set of more than 50 sensors that will be placed 10km apart along the length of the fault as part of the Southern Alps Long Skinny Array project, known as SALSA.
The completed installation with team (L-R): Olivia Pita Sllim, Ash Matheson, Prof John Townend and Dr. Finn Illsley-Kemp. Photo: RNZ / Claire Concannon
The aim is to record and decipher the ambient seismic noise – the background hum of the fault line – which in turn will enable them to create virtual earthquakes that can mimic what ground shaking will look like when a slip happens anywhere along the fault.
The SALSA project is funded by the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society Te Apārangi and involves scientists and graduate students from Victoria University of Wellington—Te Herenga Waka, SeismoCity Ltd., GNS Science, the University of Auckland, and the universities of Edinburgh, Tokyo and Washington. The project is led by Professor John Townend of Victoria University of Wellington and Dr Caroline Holden of SeismoCity Ltd. The project uses equipment and gets technical and logistical expertise from the Portable Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (PASSCAL) Instrument Center in Socorro, New Mexico.
The SALSA team very gratefully acknowledges the support and encouragement of Te Rūnaka o Makaawhio and Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Waewae, the Department of Conservation, Fox and Franz Heliservices, Aratuna Freighters, Out There Learning, and landowners throughout the region. Kia ora mai tātou. Ngā mihi nui ki a tātou.