Earthquake simulation

Press, 9 July 1983, Page 6

Earthquake simulation

PA Auckland Scientists will detonate two big depth charges off the North Island on Monday and Tuesday in an exercise designed to simulate the sound effects of an earthquake. Shipping has been warned to stay well clear when the 400 kg charges are detonated

somewhere north of Cape Rodney and Cape Reinga. Dr F. J. Davy, a scientist in the Geophysics Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, explained that the explosions were part of a joint research programme with the Australian National University at Canberra. The charges would be detonated at a deep level. “There will be no big

spout of water as is seen in all the best movies,” he said. Nevertheless, shipping had been warned to stay a mile away from the explosion sites. The explosions are designed to help the scientists measure sound and shock waves as they travel through rock layers up to 40 kilometres below the surface of the Earth.

Seismometers borrowed from the Australian university have been set up in a straight line from North Auckland to the centre of the North Island to measure the sound and shock waves. The tests would help to give scientists a much better understanding of the over-all structure of New Zealand and how it had developed during the last tew hundred million years.