The Hikurangi subduction fault runs under the eastern side of the North Island and has a large down dip curvature (Williams et al. 2013). The six current Hikurangi fault rupture scenarios provided by the National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) all provide for a planar fault geometry that is adopted in predictions using both empirical ground motion models (GMMs) and also prior simulations performed by the authors.
In this poster we examine the effect of more realistically representing the curved geometry in the source description, and its influence on simulated ground motions. The mathematical approach by which a 2D planar geometry is mapped onto a curvilinear surface is described, followed by a comparison of the results obtained through ground motion simulations.