N.Z. base for 'quake study?

Press, 13 April 1988, Page 31

N.Z. base for 'quake study?

I ■ PA I Wellington New Zealand is likely to be the site of a unique large>scale earthquake study mounted by United States and French scientists. In :New Zealand to plan the study is associate professor of seismology at Memphis State University in Tennessee, Dr Jer-Ming Chiu. i The proposed year-long study would involve about 70 seismic recorders placed in the middle and lower half of the North Island and on the ocean floor off the eastern coast. The focus of the study would be the movement of the Pacific Ocean plate under the Indian-Austra-lian plate on whic# the North Island rests.

'I I : By measuring [ the movement of earthquake waves through | the plates, seismologists I would be able to deduce' the physical 'structure of the earth below the | North Island and the contours of the two plates. j I Deductions about the direction! of stresses in the earth might also be possible. ! H dH' 11 p Such an experiment on this kind of scale had never previously been mounted. Dr Chiu said. l - He was optimistic that the study would go ahead, but fundings still had to [be confirmed |[ from I ! the United States j relational Science : Foundation and French i participants !at New Caledonia’s lOrstbm Research Institute.