At 3 AM on May 29, 2013, the South Island’s technological unconscious roars […] Geologists and authorities are racing to quantify what might happen, and how they might respond in the event of the next one, likely to occur some time in the next 50 years. The findings published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America suggest that some places along the fault, particularly around the towns of Hokitika and Greymouth, could experience strong ground shaking from Alpine fault earthquakes more often than previously thought.. The Alpine Fault runs right through the heart of New Zealand's glacier county on the country's south island. The Alpine Fault last got seriously testy in 1717 or thereabouts and before that, in descending order, 1620, 1430 and 1100. The fault line is where the Eurasian … Through careful radio carbon dating, the evidence found at Hokuri Creek and John O'Groats reveals that the Alpine Fault has a long, remarkably regular history of large earthquakes. A new study by GNS Science has found evidence for a previously unrecognised rupture in the first half of the 19 th century at the northern tip of the central section. Scientists currently regard the fault as having several sections, each of which exhibits a different rupture history and all of which can generate a large earthquake. The science While we can’t predict when earthquakes will occur, scientific research has shown that the Alpine Fault has a regular history of producing large earthquakes. Project AF8 is a collaborative effort to prepare for a magnitude 8 Alpine Fault earthquake. It’s the part of the active boundary between the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates where they intersect on land. The Alpine Fault is sometimes compared with California’s San Andreas Fault, being another fast-moving strike slip fault near a plate boundary. 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