The National Emergency Management Agency [NEMA] is testing the country's official response to a "significant" magnitude 8+ Alpine Fault earthquake today.
Exercise Rū Whenua 2024 commences today and will run over three days between now and mid-July.
Rū Whenua is Te Reo Māori for earthquake.
Today's exercise is based on an Alpine Fault earthquake and will test New Zealand's arrangements for responding to and recovering from a major earthquake with widespread impacts.
The activity is developed by the AF8 Programme and is being run under the Interagency National Exercise Programme.
NEMA said while we can't predict when an earthquake will happen, scientific research indicates there is a 75 percent probability of an Alpine Fault earthquake greater than magnitude 7 happening in the next 50 years. And there is a four out of five chance that it will be a magnitude 8+ event.
Over the last 8000 years, the fault has ruptured 27 times. On average that's every 300 years. The last significant quake was in 1717.
A number of agencies and local councils are taking part in the training.
Three emergency operations centres and a number of coordination centres are being established nationwide for the exercise.
The West Coast Regional Council will operate its Emergency Coordination Centre in two shifts from 8am to 7pm.
Acting CDEM Group Manager Cindy Fleming says the exercise will allow West Coast Emergency Management to identify any gaps in their current procedures and build capacity.
"It's critical we review the exercise in a true-to-life scenario to help us focus on future CDEM systems and future preparations,"
"It's really essential we evaluate all possibilities so we're adequately prepared for an Alpine Fault 8 event here on the West Coast, this exercise will help us develop those systems to their best ability."
The next two days of the exercise are on June 26 and July 10.
