QuakeCoRE Seminar: Ngā Ngaru Wakapuke Building Resilience to Earthquakes in Transition Zone (2024)

QuakeCoRE Seminar Series: Ngā Ngaru Wakapuke - Building Resilience to Future Earthquake Sequences in the Transition Zone - Caroline Orchiston and Jamie Howarth (2024)
Presenters: Caroline Orchiston (Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka University of Otago) and Jamie Howarth (Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington)
Abstract:
The "Transition Zone" in central Aotearoa New Zealand marks a complex fault area between two major plate boundaries. There is a high likelihood of a large M8+ earthquake in the next 50 years, potentially triggering decades of further large, M7+ quakes. This Endeavour-funded program aims to enable transformative Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) by investigating past earthquake sequences up to 10,000 years ago using novel lake sediment records. Combined with advanced geophysical imaging and computer simulations, this allows transformative time-dependent hazard forecasting. Crucially, the program prioritises partnerships with iwi and communities to co-design resilience strategies accounting for earthquake sequence impacts. Outcomes include dynamic risk models, infrastructure investment cases, and emergency planning for multi-event sequences - a major advance for reducing future earthquake consequences.
Bios:
Caroline Orchiston is the Director of the Centre for Sustainability at the University of Otago. She has an interdisciplinary background, and her research focuses on disaster risk reduction, scenario-based earthquake response planning, community resilience to disruptive events and effective risk communication. Caroline is an Associate Director for QuakeCoRE (NZ Centre for Earthquake Resilience) and a co-theme lead for the Resilience to Nature’s Challenges national programme focussing on rural resilience to natural hazards. She was the Science Lead for the AF8 programme for eight years.member of the World Meteorological Office’s World Weather Research Program’s SAGE Steering Group (Sub-seasonal to seasonal Applications for aGriculture and Environment).
Jamie Howarth is an Associate Professor in Earth Science at Te Herenga Waka/Victoria University of Wellington. His interest in the earth sciences lies in developing proxy records of environmental change preserved in sediments. He uses these proxy records to increase our understanding of high magnitude, low frequency events and how landscapes respond to them over timeframes beyond human observation. One of his main areas of research is focused on large earthquakes, specifically: the earthquake behaviour of, and hazard posed by, Aotearoa New Zealand’s plate boundary faults.
For more information on future Seminars please visit: quakecore.nz/t...
Download the Seminar Series calendar appointments here: quakecore.nz/w...