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The Hurunui section of the Hope Fault is a newly defined, 42 km long geomorphic fault section which extends from Harper Pass to the Hope-Boyle River confluence. Reconnaissance mapping along the Hurunui section from Hope Shelter to Harper Pass provided new data on its location, geomorphology, displacement, and slip rate. More than 200 previously published field observations of dextrally and vertically displaced landforms along the fault provide data on the distribution of displacement along the fault trace. Five radiocarbon dates found in association with offset geomorphic features are presented and two new measures of dextral slip rate are calculated. At McKenzie Stream, a late Holocene fan complex is cut by the Hope Fault. Young abandoned and active channels on this surface show dextral offsets of up to 22 ± 2 m along a south-facing scarp with a height of up to 5 m. Woody litter from a unit in this complex has yielded a radiocarbon age of 2331 ±55 yr BP and a corresponding minimum horizontal slip rate of 8.1-11.0 mm/yr. At Macs Knob, large dextral deflections of stream catchments are linked to episodes of glacial resetting of the landscape. Correlation of the offset of "Macs stream" (166 ± 17 m) with a post-Aranuian age peat (10 782 ± 60 yr BP) yields a maximum horizontal slip rate of 13.0 ± 1.5 mm/yr. The single-event dextral displacement, based on offset stream channels at McKenzie fan, is 3.2-3.8 m (av. c. 3.4 m). The ratio of dextral to vertical slip is c. 7 ± 2:1, indicating that the Hope Fault has a dominantly strikeslip sense of motion.The average recurrence interval for the last 5-7 events (i.e., to produce 19-24 m slip at McKenzie fan) is 310-490 yr. The age of the most recent surface-rupturing earthquake at this site is not known, though felt effects, fault scaling, and landscape arguments indicate it was not the AD 1888 North Canterbury earthquake.

A moment magnitude (M w) 6.2 earthquake struck beneath the outer suburbs of Christchurch, New Zealand's second largest city, on 22 February 2011 local time. The Christchurch earthquake was the deadliest in New Zealand since the 1931 M w 7.8 Hawkes Bay earthquake and the most expensive in New Zealand's recorded history. The effects of the earthquake on the region's population and infrastructure were severe including 181 fatalities, widespread building damage, liquefaction and landslides. The Christchurch earthquake was an aftershock of the M w 7.1 Darfield Earthquake of September 2010, occurring towards the eastern edge of the aftershock zone. This was a low recurrence earthquake for New Zealand and occurred on a fault unrecognised prior to the Darfield event. Geodetic and seismological source models show that oblique-reverse slip occurred along a northeastÁsouthwest-striking fault dipping southeast at c. 698, with maximum slip at 3Á4 km depth. Ground motions during the earthquake were unusually large at near-source distances for an earthquake of its size, registering up to 2.2 g (vertical) and 1.7 g (horizontal) near the epicentre and up to 0.8 g (vertical) and 0.7 g (horizontal) in the city centre. Acceleration response spectra exceeded 2500 yr building design codes and estimates based on standard New Zealand models. The earthquake was associated with high apparent stress indicative of a strong fault. Furthermore, rupture in an updip direction towards Christchurch likely led to strong directivity effects in the city. Site effects including long period amplification and near-surface effects also contributed to the severity of ground motions.

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