Threat of quake in Southern Alps wanes

Earthquake-weary South Islanders finally have some good news – the Alpine Fault could still be 200 years away from generating its next quake of about magnitude 8.0.

Scientists have found that the most active central and southern sections of the 650-kilometre-long fault appear to break on average once every 480 years, not about every 300 years as previous studies suggested.

The date of the last huge quake from the fault has been pinpointed as 1717 (plus or minus two or three years), which had meant another major quake might be not far away.