“We can’t predict earthquakes, but we can prepare for them” is the message of the group calling themselves AF8 (Alpine Fault magnitude 8) that visited Fiordland College this week to educate students about earthquakes – what causes them and how to better prepare for them.

Monday’s visit was part of a roadshow run by QuakeCoRE - a University of Canterbury based Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) and funded by the NZ Government’s Curious Minds initiative. The team consisting of AF8 programme lead Alice Lake-Hammond, QuakeCoRE engagement co-ordinator Brandy Alger and research engineer Dr Andrew Stolte, is travelling around the Alpine Fault area, visiting schools and educating students about earthquakes.

The visitors brought a seismometer to show how it detects and records shaking. This was achieved by the whole class jumping simultaneously to cause the floor of the building to shake. Ms Alger then used an earthquake simulator to demonstrate how earthquakes affected a scaled down model of a house. The students were then given an opportunity to build towers out of blocks and test their strength in the earthquake simulator.

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AF8, set up in 2016 to bring together Civil Defence and science, is a collaborative effort to save lives by planning and preparing a coordinated response across the South Island after a severe earthquake on the Alpine Fault. The South Island roadshow forms a part of AF8’s ongoing communication activities and is the second one of its kind, with the inaugural roadshow having been run last year.  

To deliver the programme QuakeCoRE has partnered with Canterbury Seismic Instruments (CSI). In addition to education, the programme includes the installation of a CSI seismometer at each school. This connects the school to CSI’s Sentinel Earthquake Response Network. When an earthquake strikes, Sentinel compares measured ground shaking to the NZ Building Code design limits. In minutes, Sentinel determines what happened to the school’s buildings and tells staff what needs to be done. 

Fiordland College science teacher, Dr Christoph Zink, whose two Year 10 science classes were the recipients of the programme, said the programme was beneficial to the students.

“It gives them the opportunity to see the kind of jobs there are available in the science field. It was fun and relevant to our area that lies on the Alpine Fault. And if it makes the kids to go home and talk to their parents about their emergency plan – that in itself makes it worthwhile,” he said.

Brandy Alger talking to Fiordland College Year 10 students about earthquakes. PHOTO: Alina Suchanski