Earthquake faults
Waitaha/Canterbury is located in the collision zone of two major tectonic plates, the Pacific Plate and the Australian Plate. The forces involved in this plate movement are huge. They cause the rock in the Earth’s crust to fold and fracture, particularly near the plate edges.
Find out where our region's faults are and where shaking from an earthquake is most likely.
Earthquake faults in Waitaha
The boundary between the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates cuts through Te Waipounamu/the South Island. The two plates meet at the Alpine Fault, which runs up the western edge of the Southern Alps/Kā Tiritiri o te Moana, before splitting into four main faults through North Waitaha and Marlborough – the Wairau, Awatere, Clarence and Hope faults. In addition to the main plate boundary faults, there are many smaller faults throughout Waitaha.
Most of the time the rocks on either side of a fault are ‘stuck’ together, and they can stay stuck for hundreds or thousands of years while the land around the fault is pushed and squeezed by the movement of the plates. At some point, however, the rock breaks along the fault and the shock waves are felt as an earthquake.
Known and suspected earthquake faults
The map shows all the known and suspected earthquake faults in Waitaha. We have mapped all these faults at a broad scale (1∶250,000) and have mapped some faults in more detail where they are close to populated areas.
Surface fault rupture
During most earthquakes, movement on the fault happens many kilometres underground. If the earthquake is big enough (more than magnitude 6.5-7) the movement can come up to the ground surface, tearing (faulting) and buckling (folding) land along the line of the fault. This is called surface fault rupture.
Surface fault rupture usually only affects a narrow area of land (tens of metres wide) where the fault meets the ground surface. Surface fault rupture affects a much smaller area than that felt by shaking from the earthquake, but it can seriously damage buildings or infrastructure like roads or pipes that cross the fault.
We provide fault information to councils to help them manage land use and development near faults to reduce the risk of damage from surface fault rupture.
A fence at Glynn Wye Station offset by 2.4 metres by movement on the Hope Fault in the 1888 earthquake
A windbreak ripped sideways by movement on the Greendale Fault during the 2010 Canterbury earthquake. Photo credit: GNS Science
State Highway 1 ripped sideways by movement on the Papatea Fault during the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake
Where can an earthquake happen?
Some faults move, creating an earthquake, more often than others. Faults at, or close to, the edge of the plates can move every few hundred years, like the Alpine and Hope faults. Faults further away from the edge of the plate can have many thousands of years between movements, like the Greendale Fault.
Earthquake shaking hazard in Waitaha
This shaking hazard map shows the likelihood of earthquake shaking across Waitaha – the warmer the colour the more likely you are, over a lifetime, to experience strong earthquake shaking.
Strong earthquake shaking is possible anywhere in Waitaha but, over the long term, strong earthquake shaking is more likely in the Southern Alps/Kā Tiritiri o te Moana and North Waitaha as these areas are closer to the tectonic plate boundary, where faults are more likely to move.
The map is created by working out the size of earthquake each fault can generate, and how often they might move.
District and city councils manage the risk of damage from earthquake shaking through the Building Code by making sure buildings are constructed to withstand a certain level of shaking based on the National Seismic Hazard Model.
For more detailed information visit the National Seismic Hazard Model page on the GNS Science website.
Earthquake shaking hazard map
2016 Kaikōura earthquake
The 2016 Kaikōura earthquake happened in one of the most geologically active areas of Aotearoa/New Zealand – right at the edge of the plates. While the complexity of the earthquake was surprising, the fact that we had a big earthquake in that area was not.
2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes
The 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes were much further away from the plate edge, where faults move less often. These earthquakes were rare events, but they remind us that big earthquakes can happen anywhere in Waitaha. The warmer area around Ōtautahi/Christchurch in the shaking hazard map is due to the possibility of aftershocks from the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes continuing over the next few decades.
The Alpine Fault: A significant threat
Although it's outside our region, the Alpine Fault poses one of the largest earthquake threats to Waitaha with a 75 per cent chance of generating a large (likely more than magnitude 8) earthquake within the next 50 years. You can learn more about the Alpine Fault on the AF8 project website.
Be prepared for an earthquake
- Find information on earthquake preparedness on the Canterbury Civil Defence Emergency Management website
- Make your home quake safe
- Find out what to do before and during an earthquake at Get Ready
- Visit GeoNet for the latest earthquake monitoring.
Earthquake fault reports
You can find more detailed information about earthquake faults in the following reports. The reports cover most districts and some individual faults where the faults are close to developed areas. Some areas may have more than one report where there is updated information, but the older report still contains relevant information.
There are no known active faults at the ground surface in Christchurch city. Movement on the Port Hills fault that caused the 2011 Christchurch earthquake was entirely underground.
Download fault reports
Kaikōura District:
- Updated Assessment of Active Faults in the Kaikōura district (2019) (PDF file, 7.13MB)
- General distribution and characteristics of active faults and folds in the Kaikoura District, North Canterbury (2015) (PDF file, 11.55MB)
Hurunui District:
Hope fault at Mt Lyford:
Waimakariri District:
- Review of active fault information for the Waimakariri District (2019) (PDF file, 5.97MB)
- General Distribution and characteristics of active faults and folds in the Waimakariri District, North Canterbury (2013) (PDF file, 10.25MB)
Ashley fault zone at Loburn:
Starvation Hill Fault at Oxford:
Selwyn District:
Greendale fault:
Ashburton District:
Timaru District:
Mackenzie District:
Ostler fault at Twizel:
- Ostler Fault mapping for the Mackenzie District Plan (2023) (PDF file, 5.96MB)
- Assessment of active fault and fold hazards in the Twizel area, Mackenzie District, South Canterbury (2010) (PDF file, 4.32MB)