2012 New Zealand lidar from area impacted by M7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake available

Continuing our collaboration with Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), OpenTopography is pleased to announce the availability of lidar point cloud data from the coast near Kaikoura, Northern Canterbury, New Zealand. These data cover the region heavily impacted by the 14 November 2016 M7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake and represent an important topographic measure of the landscape prior to the significant vertical and horizontal displacements that occurred during the event. The data were collected by Aerial Surveys and their subcontractors, and were provided to OpenTopography by LINZ.

Get the data: Kaikoura, Canterbury New Zealand 2012

Below: Comparison between a pre-EQ 2012 bare earth (DTM) hillshade (1m resolution) and recently released post-EQ aerial imagery (0.2m resolution) at Waipapa Bay, where ~5.5m of uplift was observed on the Papatea Fault (very clear scarp just right of center in the imagery):

Drone fly-over of the Papatea Fault area shown in the 2012 and 2016 imagery above:

OpenTopography hopes to continue to work with LINZ to add other New Zealand lidar data related to this event, including the post-earthquake lidar, to enable topographic change detection. Stay tuned.