But it seems that the earthquakes that occurred early in the morning three weeks ago – on Friday, March 5 – also led to other natural phenomena.
More than 300 landslides have been found on Raul Island in the Kermadec Islands, near where the 8.1 magnitude earthquake hit this morning.
This massive shock came after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake off the North Island around 2.30 that morning, followed by a 7.4 magnitude quake just over four hours later.
GeoNet, the result of a collaboration between the Earthquake Commission and GNS Science, has shown stunning images showing how much the island has changed since staff visited the area following the earthquakes.
“Our team of experts found that over 300 new landslides have occurred on the island.”
With the help of the New Zealand Defense Force, staff were able to map various landslides using satellite and pre-earthquake imagery.
“Coastal slopes typically have high flotation for stimulated landslides, and most of the mapped landslides occurred on these slopes,” the statement said.
“This is because they tend to be steeper in the corner and higher up the local slope.”
The staff also discovered that larger landslides had occurred at the edge of the volcanic crater; which corresponded to areas with “high simulated landslide probability”.
GNS Science geologists Chris Massey, Brenda Rosser and Biljana Lukovic said the “most impressive” landslides occurred around Blue Lake and along the island’s uneven coastline.
Some of the larger ones identified were up to 20,000 m3.
“Imagine two rugby fields,” they said.
Other relatively small landslides were approximately 100 m3 to 200 m3, and most of them were formed by rock and earth avalanches and landslides.
“Bells Beach experienced a significant landslide where about 400 m of coastal cliffs collapsed, leaving a plume of sediment in the ocean.”
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