![]() The dammed river eventually overflowed the landslide debris and gradually eroded it down, without causing serious flooding. As a precaution, about 10,000 people were evacuated. If the landslide dam had burst, the river would have flooded not only Inangahua, but the much larger town of Westport, located downstream at the river mouth. The rising water backed up for 7 kilometres (4.3 mi), raising the river to 30 metres above its normal level. A huge landslide dammed the Buller River upstream of Inangahua. The earthquake and its many aftershocks triggered numerous landslides in the surrounding mountains. An additional three men were killed on 29 May when a Bell 47G-2A helicopter, piloted by Gordon Hutchings, carrying two Post Office linesmen, Robert Pedder and Edwin Steer, from Murchison to Lyell, hit power lines and crashed shortly after take-off. Shortly after the earthquake, one man died near Greymouth when his car hit a subsided section of road on the run-up to a bridge. Jackson and pushed it downhill, killing Mrs Jackson instantly and fatally injuring her visiting mother, Mrs F.E. Casualties Īt Whitecliffs, a limestone bluff collapsed onto a farmhouse owned by Mr Fred J. Other West Coast towns were heavily shaken more than two-thirds of the chimneys in Greymouth, Westport, and Reefton were damaged. The electricity and phone networks were out, and many water pipes in Inangahua were damaged beyond repair. Īll roads in and out of Inangahua were blocked by landslides. ![]() It also derailed two goods trains, and over 100 kilometres (62 mi) of damaged railway track had to be replaced. The earthquake also damaged or destroyed more than 50 bridges. In a section of 50 kilometres (31 mi), the road through Buller Gorge was blocked in more than 50 places, either buried under landslides or where the road itself had collapsed into the gorge. ![]() The earthquake ruined many years of expensive work improving State Highway 6 in the Inangahua and Buller Gorge areas. The 1968 Inangahua earthquake occurred along the Northern section of the Alpine Fault, and was considered quite average for what the fault can produce.ĭamage Inangahua Junction bridge after the 1968 earthquake. In the South Island most of the relative displacement between these plates is taken up along a single dextral (right lateral) strike-slip fault with a major reverse component, the Alpine Fault. New Zealand lies along the boundary between the Indo-Australian and Pacific Plates. Numerous aftershocks followed the quake, including 15 that were magnitude 5 or greater and occurred within a month. It resulted in the deaths of three people, with a further 14 people injured, making it the fifth deadliest earthquake in New Zealand's recorded history (tied with the 1848 Marlborough earthquake). It occurred at a depth of 12 kilometres (7.5 mi), being extremely shallow for an earthquake of its size. The earthquake had a moment magnitude of 7.1, a local magnitude of 6.7, a surface wave magnitude of 7.4 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of X ( Exreme). The 1968 Inangahua earthquake struck 25 kilometres (16 mi) west of Murchison, New Zealand, near the small town of Inangahua Junction at 5:24 am NZDT on. New Zealand sits on the seismically active “ Ring of Fire” around the Pacific Ocean, where about 90 per cent of the world’s earthquakes occur.Ī magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck 10 kilometres from Christchurch’s central business district in 2011, killing 185 people and injuring thousands more.41☄6′S 172☀2′E / 41.76°S 172.04☎ / -41.76 172.04 The strongest aftershock recorded so far was magnitude 6.3. The region has already experienced more than 300 aftershocks, half of which have been magnitude 4 or greater. Nevertheless, it could set off the closer Hope Fault, which branches off the Alpine Fault, he says. However, Ristau believes Monday’s earthquake is probably too far away from the Alpine Fault to have a direct effect. If the 600-kilometre fault ruptures, it will produce one of the biggest earthquakes in New Zealand since European settlement, says GNS Science. The giant Alpine Fault borders the South Island and splays into many faults through the North Island, he says. The stress change could trigger a powerful earthquake at the interface between the Australian and Pacific plates, known as the Alpine Fault, says Kevin McCue at Central Queensland University. The South Island was thrust up over the Pacific plate with some sideways slip. Preliminary data show the earthquake occurred on a previously unknown fault near the interface of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates. Waves measuring 2.5 metres hit the coast soon afterwards, but further, larger waves of up to 5 metres that were feared didn’t happen. The quake triggered a tsunami warning that was later cancelled.
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