Quake moves NZ towards Australia

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Quake moves NZ towards Australia

A massive earthquake last week has brought New Zealand closer to
Australia,
scientists say.

The 7.8 magnitude quake in the Tasman Sea has expanded New Zealand's
South
Island westwards by about 30cm (12in).

Seismologist Ken Gledhill, of GNS Science, said the shift demonstrated
the huge
force of the tremor.

But correspondents say that with more than 2,250km (1,400 miles)
separating the
countries, the narrowing will not exactly be visible.

Nor, as the New Zealand media have observed, is it likely to bring
cheaper air
fares.

Tsunami alert



The earthquake causes some landslip in the Fiordland region
The quake was powerful enough to generate a small tsunami with a wave
of one
metre (3ft) recorded on the west coast of New Zealand.

People in coastal areas were for a time advised to move to higher
ground.

While the south-west of the South Island moved about 30cm towards
Australia, the
east coast moved only one centimetre westwards, Dr Gledhill
said."Basically, New
Zealand just got a little bit bigger is another way to think about
it," he told
AFP news agency.

Although it was New Zealand's biggest earthquake in 78 years, it
caused only
slight damage to buildings and property when it struck in the remote
Fiordland
region west of Invercargill last Thursday.


FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE


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"For a very large earthquake, although it was very widely felt, there
were very
few areas that were severely shaken," Dr Gledhill said.

GNS Science is a research organisation run by the New Zealand
government.

New Zealand frequently suffers earthquakes because it sits on the
meeting point
of the Australian and Pacific continental plates.