NIWA’s research vessel Tangaroa will survey near the epicentre of the Cook Strait earthquakes tomorrow to see if there have been changes to the sea floor.

The vessel had been stationed off the Marlborough coast mapping an area of Pegasus Basin, but will spend part of the day on Wednesday taking measurements to check if the earthquakes triggered landslides in the Cook Strait Basin.

NIWA marine geologist Scott Nodder says the data would help quantify the landslide and tsunami risk to the country’s coastal communities.

“We have previously identified an area of potential instability in the middle of the canyon and this will give us the opportunity to see if there have been any changes,” he says.

The work will take less than half a day and the Tangaroa is expected to return to Wellington tomorrow afternoon.

NIWA scientists are also working with GNS Science to figure out which fault line the earthquakes occurred on and its relationship to the large Wellington fault line.

A large 6.5 magnitude quake struck the Cook Strait near Seddon, in Marlborough, on Sunday night and was felt widely throughout central New Zealand.

– Graphics / NIWA

– 3 News