One of New Zealand’s leading young researchers has received a Rutherford Foundation Trust Award to study at Victoria University of Wellington where he will investigate the ‘Big Bend’ of the Alpine Fault in southeast Nelson.
Dr Matthew Sagar, who is currently a teaching fellow at the University of Otago, has been awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship and will undertake his research under the supervision of Professor Diane Seward and Dr Kevin Norton from Victoria’s School of Geography, Environment and Earth Science.
His project, titled Alpine Fault “Big Bend”: Evolution and earthquake hazard, will focus on the area of the fault where the Australian and Pacific tectonic plate boundary splits into several major and related faults, producing a number of large earthquakes including the 2013 Cook Strait earthquake sequence.
He will use his funding to determine the thermal history of rocks, and estimate the vertical uplift of the plates, which is predicted to be the major motion in the area.
Dr Sagar says his project will contribute to the development of better local seismic hazard models, and also help to answer questions in relation to how the ‘Big Bend’ and similar faults overseas, were formed.
“I am honoured to have been awarded a Rutherford Foundation Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship and excited about pursuing my research at Victoria,” he says.
“The Alpine Fault ‘Big Bend’ has been somewhat neglected and may pose a bigger seismic hazard than currently appreciated. Also, I will have the privilege of working in southeast Nelson, which I think is one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand—if not the world!”
The Rutherford Foundation Trust, established by the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2008, aims to develop the skills of New Zealand’s brightest and most promising young researchers by providing them with early career support.
