Collaborative Research: Unlocking the secrets of slow slip by drilling at the northern Hikurangi subduction margin, New Zealand: CORK observatory development and installation

The Hikurangi subduction zone offshore the eastern North Island of New Zealand has characteristics that provide a globally unique window into a fundamental aspect of how stress builds up and is relieved as an oceanic plate thrusts (or ?subducts?) beneath continental crust. Recently, seismologists have recognized that subduction megathrust faults undergo slip in episodic ?slow slip events?. Prior to the discovery of slow slip events in the last decade, our paradigms of fault slip were focused on seismic slip in major earthquakes. Since the discovery of slow slip, most studies have focused on deep (>20-40 km depth) slow slip events, but we now realize that shallow slow slip events (

The shallowest, well-documented slow slip events on Earth occur at the northern Hikurangi margin, offshore Gisborne, New Zealand, at