The Geoscience Society of New Zealand presents the 2023 Hochstetter lecture series Kaikōura Earthquake – Tales from the seafloor, presented by Lorna Strachan

In November 2016, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake dramatically struck the coastal region of Kaikōura, indelibly impacting the residents of the region, changing the very shape of the coast and land, and generating a devastating tsunami. But what happened offshore? Did the seafloor respond in a similarly dramatic fashion? What are the effects 6 years later and how can we use the earthquake triggered deposits to understand past and future hazards?

Exposed kelp forests on Kaikōura coastline after 2016 earthquake
Rights: Marine Ecology Research Group, Canterbury University New Zealand

Dying kelp

The 2016 earthquake caused large-scale uplift of the Kaikōura coastline, exposing kelp forests that then died off.

In these talks, Lorna will use exceptional novel seafloor data and state of the art techniques to show the devastation wrought on the seafloor by the Kaikōura Earthquake. Lorna will use the sedimentary deposits that resulted from the Earthquake to build a narrative of the physical and biogenic processes in the minutes, hours, and years following the Earthquake. Lorna will reflect on how we can use these exceptionally 'geologically young' deposits to unravel past cataclysmic natural hazards to help us better understand the interconnections between the land, people, and ocean floor in the future.

For more information see links below.

Locations

Related content

Find out more about the Kaikōura earthquake, one of the imapct was that this exposed kelp forests. The article Kelp forests after the Kaikōura earthquake provides information on many of kelps’ ecosystem services and why scientists are keen to research the impacts caused by the earthquake.

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