| abstract
| - The 2020 New Zealand Earthquake (pronounced "TWENTY-TWENTY", also known as the Alpine Fault Quake and the 2020 South Island Quake) is a magnitude 8.7 earthquake that will occur on the Alpine Fault in New Zealand's South Island at 11:31 (local) on Thursday, June 18th, 2020. It will be centred roughly 60km west of Queenstown, in the South Westland area. The earthquake is the first major earthquake of the 2020s decade, and will be the worst quake (both in casualties and devastation) in New Zealand's history. In terms of total death toll, it will be the worst earthquake since the 2015 Nepal Earthquake and the worst earthquake to occur in a Western nation since the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake, also in New Zealand. It will also become the world's most widely-felt earthquake, being felt more than 2100km away in Sydney, Australia. The earthquake will trigger a horizontal earth shift of between 6 to 8 metres, and a vertical shift of 4 metres.
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