Skip to main content

Story: Active faults

Active faults in New Zealand

Many fault lines cut the ground’s surface in New Zealand; each past fault movement would have been accompanied by a large earthquake. Those that are considered likely to move again in the future are called active faults. They are known to have ruptured the ground surface at least once in the last 120,000 years. This map effectively shows the areas where future earthquakes are most likely.

Using this item

Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Source: GNS Science

This item has been provided for private study purposes (such as school projects, family and local history research) and any published reproduction (print or electronic) may infringe copyright law. It is the responsibility of the user of any material to obtain clearance from the copyright holder.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Eileen McSaveney, Active faults – What is an active fault?, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/zoomify/4345/active-faults-in-new-zealand (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Eileen McSaveney, published 2 March 2009.

Comments

Alvin jefferies
12 February 2017
I watch the Geonet site a lot and I am amassed at the number of quakes happening in NZ. Is this the normal pattern or is NZ going through a more active period , or is this going to brew up for a much larger quake?
S
22 February 2015
Please place a link on this page of the fault lines map, a document .pdf file...would be nice.
David
03 January 2012
@Lynley - the general evolution of the earthquake sequence is eastward, thus any map of probable fault lines delineated in the past few months will be of little (if any) use. You might like to read my thoughts on what might really be happening: http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/whiskey-tango-foxtrot/51963-a-theory-on-the-christchurch-earthquakes To many others posting here... no, earthquakes and whale beachings are not connected; no, it is not possible to predict earthquakes 4 days in advance (with magical satellites or any other technique!); to the person proposing an earth's magnetic field flip - you must have knowledge which even the leading scientists (with all their detailed field strength measuring equipment) have been deprived of! I'm in the middle of a second article which dispels many of these myths and also outlines what an eruption of the Banks Peninsula volcano might look like - come back to www.itwire.com tomorrow for a look at it!
Lynley
31 December 2011
Come on, you need to update your map with all the newly discovered faultlines around Christchurch. Your map is next to useless for us who are living through this.
Kieran
05 June 2011
OK some of the things posted are amuseing.... first the buildings were belived to withstand a large earthquake but the earthquake in febuary moved in 4 different directions .... or atleast tried to, and no there has never been any large earthquake in addington or been a lage earthquake in Christchurch. And no you cant predict earthquakes.... in japan the early warning system is for tasunamis, which caused the majority of the damage. And living in CHCH it has always been thought that the big quake would hit in Wellington.
Rod
20 March 2011
I heard in April an early warning system is being launched into space. Satalites using thermal etc to detect earthquakes upto 4 days b4 it happens, due to the huge amount of energy released from plate movement. Hope this is true and works.
Sande
14 March 2011
The Christchurch quake caused the fault line to appear it wasn't there before the quake. Thats why it was unknown it wasn't even there before the quake!!!
Hans
08 March 2011
3 years ago, there were 3 sizeable earthquakes in Auckland in the Hauraki Gulf, with damage on land. Can these volcanic earthquakes be as big as regular fault-line earthquakes? (google auckland + earthquakes to verify the quakes I speak of). Cheers
jade
08 March 2011
I've heard stories of chch people saying they feel earthquakes all the time (prior to the 2 recent biggies) would this not mean there were obviously faults there? i also thought there was an earthquake years ago centred in addington (suburb of chch)
Sarah T
04 March 2011
Its very strange that The Lyttelton fault was previously unknown when Lyttelton its self is in a crater. Aren't Earthquakes and Volcanic eruptions generally linked?
Norvic
04 March 2011
EMFF Can cause Earthquakes nowhere near any fault lines !
Norvic Hindmarsh
04 March 2011
The documented increase in Earthquake activity worldwide, dead animals,birds & fish,beached whales /dolphins ,all down to one event coming our way Earth Magnetic Field Flip.The effects start with very focalised events which will get increasingly bigger and soon rather than later humans will be involved in bizarre behaviour/events .
Matthew
01 March 2011
Adrian, regarding your question: "why no early warning system in place as in Japan?" Yes, an early warning system could prevent deaths in circumstances where a large magnitude earthquake causes damage over a wide area, and in general would be a good idea to implement in New Zealand. However, detection/broadcast and people acting on the warning still takes 10 seconds or so, so only provides benefit farther from the epicentre. For a highly localised event, such as the M6.3 22 January, I don't think it would have provided any benefit... With waves travelling at up to 8km/s (P waves) and at least 4km/s (S waves), and the hypocentre being only about 10km from the CBD, the propagation time to CBD and surrounding populated areas was only a second or two. Which is far too close.
Adrian
25 February 2011
The buildings near known and suspected faults ALL need to be built to withstand earthquakes and be certified with a wof . As evidenced in CHCH the old churches and buildings were effected but shockingly two newer buildings caused deaths. There needs to be an investigation into why these fell and others stood.Were they under spec.? Why was no early warning system in place as in Japan?
Deanna (aged 16)
25 February 2011
Is there any possibility of NZ splitting between Greymouth & Christchurch in the future? Also any studies being done on earthquake magnetic fields & beached whales in NZ & the possiblity of a new volcano surfacing?
Trudy
23 February 2011
Fault lines move, therefor Christchurch wont show here.Got to teh site where scientists predicted a major quake and said Christchurch will not be spared. This was published on the 20th Feb 2010
Te Ara
23 February 2011
Hi Tina, you're right that there are no known faults right near Christchurch. The Darfield fault, which caused the September 2010 earthquake, is the one just to the west of Christchurch. The February 2011 earthquake seems to have been on a previously unknown fault near Lyttelton (10 kilometres south of Christchurch).
tina loughlin
23 February 2011
chch dosnt even look like its on the fault line what up??