Quake 'catastrophic' for marine ecosystem

WELLINGTON - Huge mudslides caused by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in New Zealand last year have wiped out vast tracts of one of the world's richest underwater ecosystems, scientists said on Monday.

The Nov 14 quake, which killed two people on land, had destroyed any signs of organisms living in the seabed of the Kaikoura Canyon off the northeast coast of the South Island, said the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

NIWA scientists had undertaken two research trips to the canyon this year and discovered mudslides had sent mud and debris into the canyon's central channel.