Could earthquake uplift help protect against sea-level rise?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-11-13 03:00

New Zealand

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Coastal communities may wonder if a relative sea-level fall - either gradual or rapidly after a quake - can buy time in how their beach responds to sea-level rise from climate change. Research on NZ's Kaikōura coastline suggests that, over time, differing beaches can respond very differently to quake-sparked sea-level fall - and this depends on features like whether they were eroding or growing pre-quake. These researchers suggest that in places where sediment supply was insufficient beforehand, post-quake uplift does not necessarily cancel out the eroding effects of sea-level rise: two years after the 2016 shake, some Kaikōura beaches began to show signs of erosion again while others were in surplus.