The Alpine Fault along the South Island usually causes a severe earthquake every 300 years and the last one happened in 1717. Officials are assembling a team of crack quake experts to investigate possible mega-shakes that could cause widespread destruction. It was possible such a massive quake might be similar to the 2010 Canterbury one where parts of the ground were torn from each other, leaving massive channels, Langridge said. Such a tremor could leave the South Island "unzipping" itself from Milford Sound to Hokitika, GNS Science earthquake geologist Robert Langridge told Fairfax today. "An earthquake of that magnitude would rupture the seismogenic crust," he told Fairfax.

Source: New Zealand Herald July 27, 2016 08:48 UTC