The Wellington Fault line in our backyard

Like a lot of  people of a certain age, our doctor tells us to “go walking and get more exercise”.  So that is what we are trying to do each day.  Our walk today took us through a local reserve (park) and we came across this sign.

Not far from where we live

New Zealand is known as the “Shaky Isles” as our country straddles the rather romantically named “Ring of Fire”.  What this means is that we get a whole lot of earthquakes.  And the main Wellington Fault runs right through our housing subdivision.  Movement of the fault over time means that the land on the right side is higher than that on the left, forming the scarplet.

Grassed area is the fault line

The fault runs along the central grassed area of this road, and back through the reserve.  There are monitors in place to measure any movement of the fault line.  Like most Kiwis, (and like those who live along the San Andreas fault in California USA we presume), we tend not to dwell on earthquakes too much, and just get on with life.  But in saying that, New Zealand is riddled with faults, and the main Wellington fault line is massive, joining up with others further up the North Island.

Fault lines in the lower North Island

 

According to Wikepedia “The Wellington Fault is an active seismic fault in the southern part of the North Island of New Zealand. It is a dextral (right-lateral) strike-slip fault with variable amounts of vertical movement causing uplift to the northwest, as expressed by a series of ranges. It forms part of the North Island Fault System, which accommodates the transfer of displacement along the oblique convergent boundary between the Indo-Australian Plate and Pacific Plate.”

But is is not all doom and gloom, as we live in a beautiful safe country with a stable government, most important, when we see all the turmoil that is happening around the world these days.  So what if the earth shakes every now and again?