(CNN) New Zealand's North and South Islands are moving closer together after a series of earthquakes in 2016 that lifted the sea floor, the country's geology body has said.

The 7.8-magnitude quake and its aftershocks lifted the seabed six-and-a-half feet when they hit near Kaikōura on the South Island, exposing seaweed-covered rocks and marine life.

And the islands have continued to creep closer to each other since the quake, Sigrún Hreinsdóttir of the GNS Science body told New Zealand news website Stuff

Cape Campbell, on the northeastern tip of the South Island, is almost 14 inches closer to Wellington, a major city on the southern coast of the North Island, than it was before the quake, she said.

Meanwhile, Kaikōura has moved about six inches east, and the coastal town of Blenheim has shifted northeast by the same distance.