studies have shown last week's huge earthquake has shifted New Zealand's South Island an extra 30 cm towards Australia. "New Zealand just got a little bit bigger," earthquake scientist Ken Gledhill was quoted as saying by Queensland's The Courier Mail. He said the quake did it "in a few seconds rather than waiting hundreds of years".
Despite the immensity of the recorded 7.8 quake which triggered tsunami alerts in Australia and New Zealand, very little in the way of damage was recorded due to the remoteness of the quake's epicentre - in sparsely populated Fiordland region in the country's south.
"New Zealand has been very fortunate. This earthquake anywhere else would have caused huge damage," he said.
The mayor of Invercargill, Tim Shadbolt, told Radio New Zealand News that he welcomed the fact that parts of the country were now closer to Australia.
"I'm absolutely delighted. I built an international airport in Invercargill because we're the closest city in New Zealand to Australia and it will become more and more realistic the closer we get," he said. The Tech Herald
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