Roads were closed following slips triggered by the Kaikoura Quake in 2016. The November 2016 quake generated tens of thousands of landslides across an area stretching 10,000 sq km2, including the major slips that covered State Highway 2 and nearly 200 which blocked large, steep valleys. Immediately after major earthquakes and in the years and possibly decades after, the numbers of landslides triggered by weather events increase significantly, and then decline with time after the event. The new five-year programme, funded by MBIE's Endeavour Fund, will aim to quantify how long a landscape takes to "heal" after a major event such as the Kaikoura earthquake. "A lot of the landslides in the Kaikoura earthquake were in greywacke terrain - and this terrain basically runs up the centre of the North Island and the South Island.

Source: Otago Daily Times February 22, 2018 07:07 UTC