The devastating Kaikōura earthquake is believed to be a one-in-5000-to 10,000-year event, new research suggests.
A landmark collection of research on the magnitude 7.8 quake that struck on November 14, 2016 was released this week and detailed its impacts.
Led by GNS Science earthquake geologist Nicola Litchfield, the research showed about two-thirds of the earthquake's energy was released when 24 fault lines ruptured.
The remaining third occurred on the underlying Hikurangi subduction interface - the boundary where the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates meet.
The paper noted the rupture intervals of the faults involved in the earthquake range from 300 to 10,000 years.
But the occasion when all the intervals coincide, as happened with the Kaikōura quake, is between 5000 and 10,000 years.
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Scientists say faults jumped up to 22km between ruptures - a feature that has never been seen anywhere else in the world.
The special Kaikōura Earthquake issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America contains 21 detailed articles that have been written by expert teams over the past 18 months.
These papers join at least 60 other papers already published on the earthquake and its impacts.
Newshub.
