A scientist says some mountain ridges look like they exploded in the earthquake that hit the Wanaka area on Monday.
An earthquake initiated landslide on the east face of Duries Peak, Poolnoon Burn, about 15 km south of the epicentre of Monday's earthquake. Photo: Simon Cox, GNS Science / GeoNet
Simon Cox of GNS yesterday took part in two helicopter flights over the epicentre of the shallow 5.8 quake, which was centred 30 kilometres north-west of Wanaka.
He said in the Polnoon Burn area, near the upper Shotover River, he saw impressive examples of the effects on ridges where seismic waves increased as they travelled up both sides.
"It did look to me a bit like the whole ridge had sort of tried to explode itself. It had obviously gone 'thump' and lifted a lot of the rocks and shoved them all around."
He said he saw about 20 new or refreshed landslides, which was fewer than he had expected.
EQC receives claims after quake
The Earthquake Commission has received more than two dozen damage claims as a result of the quake.
The commission's general manager Customer and Claims Gail Kettle said as of this morning 27 claims had been lodged.
Claimants had three months after the date of an earthquake to lodge a claim with the commission for damage to property or contents.
The commission also received 241 claims for damage caused in the 6.2 earthquake that hit near Kaikoura in late April.
People came out onto the streets of Wanaka during the quake. Photo: Twitter
