New Zealand was pushed to Australia after an earthquake

South New Zealand has moved closer to the east coast of neighboring Australia just after the big earthquake last week - instead of waiting for hundreds of years of seismic changes - scientists said yesterday.

According to Ken Gledhill seismologist, the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, with the epicenter in the offshore island of Resolution in New Zealand's Fiordland region, separated the South Island from the structure and pushed the southern part. Its approaching Australia to 30 cm.

Gledhill, director of the national earthquake monitoring project " GeoNet " of New Zealand's GNS Science Institute, said the island's seismic changes show a great deal of connection.

' Basically, it brought us closer to Australia, ' he said on national radio. ' The shape on New Zealand's map is always changing, but this time, that change takes place in just a few minutes, not waiting for hundreds of years .'

The July 15 earthquake is the largest earthquake in the world since the beginning of the year and the largest in New Zealand in the past 80 years. However, there were no major human and material losses after the quake shook the sparsely populated area on the South Island west coast of the Fiordland region.

' New Zealand was very lucky. Such powerful earthquakes anywhere will cause terrible damage , 'Gledhill said. According to him, the impact of the earthquake will provide 'invaluable information' about seismic structures beneath New Zealand.

Due to its location on the perimeter of the fire, New Zealand has frequent earthquakes. On average, about 14,000 earthquakes occur in the country each year.

New Zealand's South Island moves 30 cm towards Australia.
(Photo: Travelwizard)