distribution and mechanism of neogene to present day vertical axis rotations pacific australian plate boundary zone south island new zealand remarkably little knowledge exists about mechanisms of vertical axis rotation in continental crust steeply dipping basement rocks in south island new zealand provide an opportunity to map the distribution of rotations across the pacific australian plate boundary zone and to delineate boundaries of rotated blocks in unusual detail we synthesize new structural data with new and existing paleomagnetic data with geodetic data and with patterns of neogene quaternary faulting in the strike slip marlborough fault system for the past 20 m y vertical axis rotations have been hinged about two crustal scale boundaries near the east coast the ne hinge accommodated 50 of early middle miocene clockwise rotation which caused deformation of the eastern ends of the alpine wairau and clarence strike slip faults the sw hinge has accommodated a further 30 50 of finite clockwise rotation since 4 ma and deflects active fault traces the locus of rotation has shifted southwestward astride a subduction margin that is lengthening in that direction rotating rocks are pinned to the south against a locked collision zone where the continental chatham rise impinges against the margin slip on inland strike slip faults is transformed seaward across a zone of fault termination into rigid body rotation of a large continental block that has been thrust eastward over the downgoing subducted slab of the pacific plate the rotation mechanism is a migrating hinge which resembles a flexed telephone book strike slip faults are translated through a brecciated hinge region that does not coincide with a fixed material line in the rock

strain partitioning in the transition area between oblique subduction and continental collision hikurangi margin new zealand spatial differences in late quaternary structural style and deformation rates indicate a complex pattern of strain partitioning within the transition area from oblique subduction beneath southern north island to oblique continental collision in northern south island new zealand the late quaternary structure of the offshore southern hikurangi margin is determined here using seismic reflection profiles mr1 side scan sonar swath images em12dual multibeam swath bathymetry and backscatter images and sediment core and dredge samples where oblique 50 subduction of the oceanic hikurangi plateau is occurring beneath southern wairarapa region the steep dissected upper margin consists of a wedge of rocks that are being deformed by strike slip and reverse faults beneath the lower margin an accretionary wedge of quaternary age has developed rapidly by frontal accretion of a thick succession of turbidites on the pacific plate estimates of late quaternary geological strain rates have been made on two margin perpendicular transects across southern north island and the offshore margin to budget the predicted nuvel 1a plate motion more than 33 55 of the total plate motion is expressed in the offshore part of the upper plate above the subduction detachment in the central hikurangi margin between 40 s and 41 s this offshore deformation could potentially include margin parallel fault slip of up to 14 15 mm yr across the upper plate strain is partitioned into zones of folding and thrust faulting and possibly more than one zone of strike slip faulting but the partitioning may be incomplete with oblique slip thrusting an important component of the deformation the wide distribution of deformation within the upper plate partially reflects strong coupling between the subducting oceanic plateau and the leading edge of the overriding plate this coupling increases toward the southwest where the continental part of the subduction zone beneath marlborough may now be inactive or very strongly coupled toward the southwest the transpressive deformation style of the upper wairarapa margin continues into the upper marlborough margin and onshore into the strike slip marlborough fault system of northern south island in contrast the accretionary wedge narrows to the southwest and terminates in southeastern cook strait approximately above the transition from subducted oceanic crust to subducted continental crust of the pacific plate farther southwest beneath the lower marlborough margin low strain folding and thrust faulting is occurring but the style of deformation is not typical of the accretionary wedge this shortening results either from a small amount of subduction slip beneath marlborough and or from contractional strain partitioned to the southeast of the continental transpression zone whereas the initial onset of continental collision occurs in marlborough the surface expression of deformation of the pacific plate occurs south of 42 30 s normal faulting of the northwestern margin of the continental chatham rise possibly reflects flexural extension of the pacific plate crust at the southern end of the subduction zone whereas folding and thrust faulting of the north canterbury coastal region results from nw se contraction of the delaminated upper crust entering the southern alps collision zone

tectonic rotations about vertical axes during the last 4 ma in part of the new zealand plate boundary zone the declinations of the primary magnetization of sedimentary rocks in the northern part of the new zealand plate boundary zone after thermal or alternating field cleaning have been used to determine tectonic rotations about vertical axes of rigid crustal blocks the pattern of rotations during the last 4 ma combined with structural style and continuity defines seven structural domains each ca 100 100 200 km across which contain crustal blocks up to 100 km across and 20 km thick large crustal blocks tens of km across in two of these domains have rotated clockwise more than 20 relative to one of the margins of the plate boundary zone in the last 4 ma their behaviour appears to be controlled by the nature of the plate boundaries such as the presence of an underlying subducted slab and the strength of the crust at the back of the overlying crustal wedge small crustal blocks 10 km across may have rotated clockwise through angles greater than 20 during the last 4 ma floating on an underlying zone of more distributed deformation the tectonic rotations of the large crustal blocks and the nature of the deformation at their boundaries combined with an interpolation of the relative plate positions can be used to reconstruct the plate boundary zone at ca 4 ma

recognition of active strike slip faulting from high resolution marine seismic reflection profiles eastern marlborough fault system new zealand major strike slip faults within the eastern part of the marlborough fault system of new zealand extend offshore beneath the continental shelf into the southern end of the hikurangi margin six major submarine faults each tens of kilometers in length and exhibiting the three dimensional structural characteristics typical of strike slip deformation zones are mapped in detail using closely spaced high resolution seismic reflection profiles each fault displaces late quaternary sediments that have been interpreted within the framework of the sequence stratigraphic model and the established history of glacio eustatic sea level cyclicity some of the faults are associated with strike slip microearthquake focal mechanisms the faults are within a complex structural high that underlies much of the outer continental shelf and within the flaxbourne basin between the structural high and the coast the plan view pattern of faulting recorded in the quaternary sediments reflects only the major surface traces that have propagated upsection as contemporaneous sedimentation has blanketed most of the evolving structures regionally the late quaternary faults compose two groups that bound blocks with rhomboid surface areas on a scale of tens of square kilometers to hundreds of square kilometers one group strikes typically between 023 and 057 i e 22 56 from the plate motion vector 079 and includes dextral oblique slip thrust faults as well as inherited steeply dipping pre pliocene strike slip faults that bound thick sedimentary basins the second group comprises possibly young 1 ma steeply dipping strike slip faults that commonly exhibit normal slip separation and strike between 067 and 085 subparallel to the azimuth of the instantaneous pacific australian plate motion vector

anatomy structural evolution and slip rate of a plate boundary thrust the alpine fault at gaunt creek westland new zealand minimum slip rates calculated for plate vector parallel slickenside trends in cataclasite on the sole of the alpine fault at gaunt creek westland new zealand range from 18 to 24 mm yr between half and two thirds of the total relative motion between the pacific and australian plates is being accommodated by movement on a single structure the alpine fault during the past 14 ka the leading edge of the alpine fault has changed from a moderately southeast dipping oblique reverse fault to a shallowly dipping thrust the hanging wall pacific plate is composed of a gradational sequence from basal gouge through pseudotachylite bearing cataclasite to progressively more coherent schist derived mylonite which has been faulted against subhorizontally bedded fluvio glacial gravel in the footwall australian plate during uplift the hanging wall sequence has been internally sheared and imbricated producing duplex structures and retrogressively veined and altered by pervasive hydrothermal fluid flow erosion of the exhumed fault zone produced angular cataclasite and mylonite derived talus fan breccias building a west dipping apron beneath the fault scarp wood fragments from near the base off the talus breccias have been 14 c dated at 12 650 90 yr b p progressive tectonic shortening resulted in 180 m of overthrusting of a schist derived nappe across an irregular talus fan surface composed of its own erosional debris the structural history of the alpine fault at gaunt creek illustrates the importance of the interaction between fault induced topography and erosion and the control these processes exert on the continued tectonic geometric and geomorphic evolution of the fault zone

five thousand years of surface ruptures on the wellington fault new zealand implications for recurrence and fault segmentation new paleoseismic studies have been undertaken on the wellington hutt valley w hv segment of the wellington fault to characterize its late holocene record of surface rupturing earthquakes trenches and radiocarbon dates from te kopahou and te marua have provided evidence and improved timing for the four most recent earthquake ruptures these events have been recognized on the basis of upward terminating faults coseismic deposition progressive displacement and faulting of colluviums at te kopahou colluvial and scree deposition resulting from surface rupture and strong earthquake shaking buries old ground surfaces associated with peat and or soil development at te marua the timing of the two youngest events has been refined by bracketing the ages of the youngest faulted and unfaulted alluvial terraces of the hutt river assuming that the w hv segment acts as a rupture segment along its length the approximate timings of these faulting events is as follows the most recent faulting event event i occurred between 110 and 310 cal yr b p a d 1640 1840 the penultimate faulting event event ii between 790 and 930 cal yr b p event iii occurred between 1835 and 2340 cal yr b p and event iv between 2460 and 4900 yr b p the minimum and maximum earthquake recurrence intervals derived from the four youngest events are 715 and 1575 yr respectively with a median value of 1145 yr revisions of the earthquake timing recurrence interval data and recently the single event displacement and slip rate collectively reduce the seismic hazard for the w hv segment of the wellington fault a four event paleoearthquake record from the pahiatua section of the wellington fault is statistically similar to that from the w hv segment this has significant implications with respect to the rupture length and magnitude or clustering of future surface rupturing earthquakes on the wellington fault

structure and paleoearthquake records of active submarine faults cook strait new zealand implications for fault interactions stress loading and seismic hazard 1 a new interpretation of active faulting in central cook strait new zealand reveals tectonic structures associated with the spatial transition from subduction to continental transform faulting marine seismic reflection profiles and multibeam bathymetric data indicate that there are no throughgoing crustal faults connecting the north island dextral fault belt and the marlborough fault system in south island the major faults terminate offshore associated with 5 20 km wide step overs and a change in regional fault strike this structure implies that propagation of strike slip earthquake ruptures across the strait is not probable faulted sedimentary sequences in the wairau basin marlborough shelf correlated to glacioeustatic sea level cycles provide a stratigraphic framework for fault analysis a high resolution study of the postglacial 20 ka vertical displacement history of the cloudy and vernon faults reveals up to six and five paleoearthquakes since 18 ka respectively these long timescale records indicate variable recurrence intervals and possibly variable stress drop thus conforming to the variable slip model of earthquake behavior integration of these data with other submarine and terrestrial paleoearthquake records indicates the presence of clustered earthquake sequences involving multiple faults different sequences do not always involve the same faults it appears that earthquake clustering is driven by fault interactions that lead to specific loading conditions favoring the triggering of earthquakes on major faults in relatively short time intervals present day regional coulomb stress distribution has been calculated in two scenarios considered to represent minimum and maximum loading conditions the models incorporating secular tectonic loading and stress changes associated with major crustal earthquakes indicate high stress loading in a large part of central cook strait these conditions may favor the triggering of future damaging earthquakes in this region

block kinematics of the pacific north america plate boundary in the southwestern united states from inversion of gps seismological and geologic data 1 the active deformation of the southwestern united states 30 41 n is represented by a finite number of rotating elastic plastic spherical caps gps derived horizontal velocities geologic fault slip rates transform fault azimuths and earthquake derived fault slip vector azimuths are inverted for block angular velocities creep on block bounding faults permanent strain rates within the blocks and the rotations of 11 published gps velocity fields into to a common north american reference frame gps velocities are considered to be a combination of rigid block rotations recoverable elastic strain rates resulting from friction on block bounding faults and nonrecoverable strain rates resulting from slip on faults within the blocks the resulting pacific north america angular velocity is similar to some published estimates and satisfies transform azimuths and one spreading rate in the gulf of california earthquake slip vectors in the gulf of california and alaska and gps velocities along coastal california and within the pacific basin published fault slip rates are satisfied except in the southern mojave desert where the motion of the mohave block relative to north america is faster than can be explained by mapped faults the largest blocks the sierra nevada great valley and the eastern basin and range show permanent strain rates after removing elastic strain of only a few nanostrain per year demonstrating approximately rigid behavior observed horizontal strain rates correlate strongly with predicted strain rates from known faults suggesting that the short term strains evident in gps velocities are largely elastic in only about 20 of the region is distributed deformation needed to match the data indicating that a plate tectonic style description of the deformation of the western united states is plausible most blocks rotate about vertical axes at approximately the same rate as the pacific relative to north america suggesting that locally spin rates are communicated from block to block arguing against both floating block and ball bearing mechanisms of block rotation the similarities of the blocks spin rates to that of the pacific suggests that the pacific strongly influences their motions through edge tractions however it is shown that the blocks cannot rotate about the pacific north america pole without spinning counter to the sense of pacific north america shear unlike some other broad plate boundaries in the western united states vertical axis rotations take up very little of the slip rate budget across the region

shortening of an overriding plate and its implications for slip on a subduction thrust central hikurangi margin new zealand 1 at subduction plate boundaries strains accumulate within the overriding plate in response to motion of the down going plate to a first approximation margin normal interplate slip and shortening in the overriding plate sum to the total plate convergence therefore margin normal interplate slip can be estimated by measuring shortening in the overriding plate and total plate convergence here we quantify margin normal interplate slip by measuring shortening of the upper plate along a profile which extends up to 480 km across and approximately normal to the central hikurangi margin new zealand long term deformation is estimated for periods of millions of years using data from seismic reflection lines and cross sections while contemporary strain rates are derived from global positioning system gps geodetic velocities these data permit comparison of plate convergence rates determined by seafloor spreading data with the rates of contraction over short 7 years and long 2 5 and 5 myr periods of time on this part of the plate boundary total margin normal shortening in the overriding plate over the last 5 myr was 9 28 km and accounts for 6 19 of the total convergence 145 160 km at rates of 2 6 mm yr the remaining 80 or more of plate convergence has been accommodated by slip on the subduction thrust gps contraction along approximately the same profile indicates 14 16 mm yr of contemporary shortening across the terrestrial part of the upper plate which is approximately modeled by 80 interplate coupling on the subduction interface down to depths of 30 km the contrasting proportions of inferred interplate coupling for contemporary and geological data sets are consistent with stick slip behavior on the plate interface and with slip being principally achieved during intermittent large earthquakes the general shapes of short and long term shortening profiles are similar and suggest that the highest strains occur at or immediately east of the mohaka fault these strain profiles are consistent with a model where high strains in the upper plate are concentrated near the down dip end of the contemporary locked zone on the plate interface this model requires that the down dip end of the interseismic locked zone has on average been approximately stable over a period of at least 2 5 5 myr

coseismic strike slip at a point during the last four earthquakes on the wellington fault near wellington new zealand 1 we analyze progressively displaced late quaternary 12 ka fluvial terraces along the wellington fault near wellington new zealand optically stimulated luminescence dating indicates that degradational terraces were produced at a rate of about one terrace per 1000 years similar to the rate of earthquake surface rupturing along the hutt river near te marua we measured the strike slip of 15 terrace risers and paleochannels on the lowest 8 of these terraces of holocene age the river after earthquakes was generally capable of smoothing its faulted riverbanks the dextral offsets appear to fall into several groupings that record slip accumulation during the last four earthquakes we calculate a mean single event slip of 5 0 0 24 m 95 confidence with an rms scatter 1 of slips about the mean of 1 5 m the coefficient of variation cv of single event slip is thus 0 30 this cv is slightly less than a recently compiled global average for point measurements on strike slip faults suggesting that the southernmost wellington fault has behaved in a more nearly characteristic way we speculate that recent large earthquake ruptures have been bounded on their southern end by the wellington fault s offshore fault termination and perhaps on their northern end by a 2 km wide releasing step over such persistent sources of rupture arrest might have led to a relative uniformity of rupture dimensions and slip amounts we infer a late holocene dextral slip rate of 4 5 0 4 mm yr 1 and 8 2 mm yr and a mean earthquake recurrence interval of 610 1100 years

a model for tectonic rotations about a vertical axis abstract the rotation of a rigid ellipsoidal inclusion within a highly viscous fluid orientated so that two of the principal axes remain horizontal is used as a model for the rotation of crustal inclusions in wide zones of continental deformation this model is also applicable to other geological problems involving the rotation of inclusions in a matrix the pattern of behaviour in such a model is shown to be complex in general the rotation rate of the inclusion is a function of all components of the velocity field of the deforming medium and the horizontal aspect ratio of the inclusion however for a given velocity field this aspect ratio must exceed a critical value before the inclusion can rotate continuously inclusions with lower aspect ratios will rotate for a certain range of orientations in an opposite direction to the sense of shear in the deforming zone the possibility of the inclusion changing shape during rotation adds to the complexity of behaviour

geodetically determined strain across the southern end of the tonga kermadec hikurangi subduction zone summary a method of simultaneous reduction is presented for determining strain rates from multiple triangulation surveys where common triangulation stations have been used but the angles of the old survey have not necessarily been reobserved this method is applied to triangulation in the northern south island at the southern end of the tonga kermadec hikurangi subduction zone from a profile of shear strain across the indian pacific plate boundary the displacement of the indian plate relative to the pacific is calculated to be 54 9 mm yr at an azimuth of 84 f lo in remarkable agreement with the motion predicted by global plate tectonic models most of this motion occurs within a 15okm wide zone bounded on the east by the hikurangi trough within this zone the motion is partitioned near the hikurangi trough no slip is occurring at the upper surface of the subducting pacific plate the subduction thrust and motion is predominantly thrusting normal to the trough axis to the west is a region of predominantly dextral strike slip faulting this pattern is consistent with fitch s model of oblique subduction to the south of the profile a change is observed in the azimuth of the faulting along a line which marks the southern extent of the subduction slab indicating the end of the partitioned motion

collisional model for rapid fore arc block rotations arc curvature and episodic back arc rifting in subduction settings 1 we review geophysical and geological data from 23 active and ancient plate boundaries to document a compelling spatial and temporal relationship between collision plate boundary curvature rapid tectonic rotations and the occurrence of back arc rifting our observations support a conceptual model where the change from subduction to collision causes rapid fore arc rotation when viewed in a reference frame relative to the bounding tectonic plates leading to marked plate boundary curvature our global compilation reveals that most active back arc rifts are associated with rapidly rotating fore arcs and nearby collisions thus we propose that collision and rapid fore arc rotations play a major role in the evolution and kinematics of back arc basins we conduct numerical modeling to better understand the physical processes behind these observed rapid tectonic rotations at convergent margins our results suggest that the presence of an indentor or choke point in the subduction system e g collision can generate rapid rotation of the fore arc about a nearby pole and lead to back arc rifting the rate of fore arc rotation and back arc rifting depends on the incoming indentor velocity and can be greatly enhanced by slab rollback and the presence of a low viscosity back arc where viscosity of the back arc is low fore arc rotation dominates where back arc viscosity is high the formation of strike slip faults and tectonic escape dominates our observational and model derived results illustrate that shallow crustal forces produced by the entry of buoyant features into subduction zones are a fundamental mechanism for the generation of fore arc block rotations plate boundary curvature back arc rift evolution and tectonic escape in subduction systems rollback of the subducting slab within the mantle will certainly enhance the processes we describe but it is not the only driving force

shallow morphology of the subducted pacific plate along the hikurangi margin new zealand abstract along the east coast of the north island new zealand the pacific plate is subducted beneath the australian plate the seismicity associated with this subduction has been determined using the results from a number of temporary and permanent microearthquake networks a synthesis of the microearthquake seismicity the depths of thrust events the depth of s to p conversions and deep reflection seismic studies leads to a coherent picture of the subducting slab both in terms of its mechanical structure and in terms of the general morphology the slab is initially subducted at a low angle of a few degrees is bent through a circular arc of few hundred kilometre radius and then becomes planar again below 120 km depth the radius of curvature varies along strike from about 280 km just north of wellington to 240 km north of hawke bay the slab shape between depths of 15 45 km is thus approximately conical it also approximates within the errors of hypocentre location a surface of constant gaussian curvature as would be geometrically expected from the simple bending of a thin spherical lithospheric shell observed seismicity is primarily concentrated within what is interpreted as the subducted crust of the pacific plate with a lower level of activity within the subducted mantle normal fault mechanisms at the top of the plate probably reflect tensional stress associated with the plate bending whereas thrust events observed at the lower bound of the observed seismicity probably reflect compression below the neutral plane

using synthetic seismicity to evaluate seismic hazard in the wellington region new zealand summary a computer synthetic seismicity program for the wellington region has been implemented and used to infer the effect of the 1848 awatere and 1855 wairarapa mega earthquakes on the timing of the next characteristic magnitude 7 35 or more earthquake on the wellington hutt valley section of the wellington fault we find that on average over several hundred cases a wellington fault event is delayed by 259 years the synthetic catalogue of 500 000 events magnitude 5 5 or more also gives the average recurrence time of characteristic wellington fault events 960 yr and their coefficient of variation 0 40 there is also a strong retarding effect on moderate magnitude wellington fault events magnitude 6 5 7 3 sensitivity tests indicate that these results are robust the synthetic model contains 58 known major faults and 3000 randomly placed small faults to reproduce the rate and spatial distribution of background seismicity observed recently from the synthetic catalogue it is possible to determine the average recurrence rate for all major faults also there is strong evidence of the short term 10 yr temporal clustering of large events throughout the region a factor that contributes to a highly variable moment release rate over time spans of a few hundred years

block modeling of crustal deformation of the northern walker lane and basin and range from gps velocities 1 we infer rates of crustal deformation in the northern walker lane nwl and western basin and range using data from the mobile array of gps for nevada transtension and other continuous gps networks including the earthscope plate boundary observatory we present 224 new gps velocities correct them for the effects of viscoelastic postseismic relaxation and use them to constrain a block model to estimate fault slip rates the data segregate the nwl into domains based on differences in deformation rate pattern and style deformation is transtensional with highest rates near the western and eastern edges of the nwl some basins e g tahoe experience shear deformation and extension normal slip is distributed throughout the nwl and basin and range where 11 subparallel range bounding normal fault systems have an average horizontal extension rate of 0 1 mm yr comparison between geologic and geodetic slip rates indicates that out of 12 published geologic rates 10 agree with geodetic rates to within uncertainties this suggests that smaller crustal blocks move steadily similar to larger lithospheric plates and that geodetic measurements of slip rates are reliable in zones of complex crustal deformation for the two slip rates that disagree geologic rates are greater the vertical axis rotation rate of the carson domain is 1 3 0 1 my clockwise lower than the 3 to 6 my obtained in paleomagnetic measurements this suggests that vertical axis rotation rates may have decreased over the last 9 13 my as the role of faulting has increased at the expense of rigid rotations

abrupt strike slip fault to subduction transition the alpine fault puysegur trench connection new zealand swath bathymetry and other geophysical data collected over the fiordland margin southwest of new zealand are used to investigate the mechanism of transform subduction transition between the alpine fault and the puysegur trench two segments of the pacific australian plate boundary in this region the cenozoic southeast tasman basin which obliquely underthrusts fiordland at the puysegur trench is separated from the cretaceous tasman basin by the resolution ridge system a major lithospheric discontinuity of the downgoing plate interpretation of seafloor morphology shows that the alpine fault extends offshore along the fiordland coast and splits into west and east branches the west branch cuts obliquely across the margin and connects sharply to the puysegur subduction front at the northeastern tip of the resolution ridge system earthquake and seismic reflection data indicate that the west branch is genetically controlled by downgoing plate structures associated with the resolution ridge system hence the west branch is interpreted as the surface trace of the plate boundary segment extending between the alpine fault and the puysegur trench we conclude that the development of the strike slip segment of the plate boundary and its sharp transition to the puysegur subduction are controlled by inherited structures of the australian plate furthermore according to geophysical data presented here a tearing of the downgoing plate can be interpreted beneath the west branch a review of geophysical data along the region of the alpine fault hikurangi trough northeast new zealand shows a progressive transform subduction transition that is accommodated by motion partitioning between the subduction interface and strike slip faults this transition is accounted for by an interplate coupling that progressively increases toward the alpine fault in relation with a gradual thickening of the downgoing crust the comparison between the fiordland and the hikurangi strike slip subduction transitions show that presence of inherited downgoing plate crustal faults properly oriented with respect to the plate motion facilitates a sharp strike slip subduction transition

comparison of geodetic and geologic data from the wasatch region utah and implications for the spectral character of earth deformation at periods of 10 to 10 million years the wasatch fault and adjacent fault zones provide an opportunity to compare present day deformation rate estimates obtained from space geodesy with geologic displacement rates over at least four temporal windows ranging from the last millennium up to 10 myr the three easternmost gps sites of the basin and range geodetic network bargen at this latitude define a 130 km wide region spanning three major normal faults extending east west at a total rate of 2 7 0 4 mm yr with an average regional strain rate estimated to be 21 4 nstrain yr about twice the basin and range average on the wasatch fault the vertical component of the geologic displacement rate is 1 7 0 5 mm yr since 6 ka 0 6 mm yr since 130 ka and 0 5 0 7 mm yr since 10 ma however it appears likely that at the longest timescale rates slowed over time from 1 0 to 1 4 mm yr between 10 and 6 ma to 0 2 to 0 3 mm yr since 6 ma the cumulative vertical displacement record across all three faults also shows time variable strain release ranging from 2 to 4 mm yr since 10 ka to 1 mm yr averaged over the past 130 kyr conventional earthquake recurrence models reid type behavior would require an accordingly large variation in strain accumulation or loading rate on a 10 kyr timescale for which there appears to be no obvious geophysical explanation alternatively seismic strain release given a wide range of plausible constitutive behaviors for frictional sliding may be clustered on the 10 kyr timescale resulting in the high holocene rates with comparatively low uniform strain accumulation rates on the 100 kyr timescale wallace type behavior the latter alternative combined with observations at the million year timescale and the likelihood of a significant contribution of postseismic transients implies maxima of spectral amplitude in the velocity field at periods of 10 myr variations in tectonic loading 10 kyr clustered strain release and of 100 years postseismic transients if so measurements of strain accumulation and strain release may be strongly timescale dependent for any given fault system

paleoseismology and global positioning system earthquake cycle effects and geodetic versus geologic fault slip rates in the eastern california shear zone published slip rates for the owens valley fault zone in eastern california based on geodetic data and elastic half space models 5 7 mm yr are faster than longer term geologic rates 2 3 mm yr we use global positioning system data spanning the central owens valley a more realistic rheological model with an elastic upper crust over a viscoelastic lower crust and upper mantle and paleoseismic data from adjacent faults to show that this difference could reflect earthquake cycle effects we estimate a long term rate 2 1 0 7 mm yr and earthquake recurrence interval 2750 350 1000 yr from the geodetic data both in agreement with independent geologic estimates

large tectonic rotation of part of new zealand in the last 5 ma abstract detailed paleomagnetic data from the wairoa syncline a middle miocene to the present forearc basin on the east coast of the north island new zealand show that the rate of clockwise rotation for the last 5 ma has been 7 8 ma of which less than 1 5 ma can be explained by apparent polar wander due to motion of the australian or pacific plates this rotation is similar to a present day rate of 7 ma determined from geodetic data between 5 and 20 ma ago the rate of tectonic rotation is poorly determined and may be between 0 and 2 ma the change in the rate of rotation of the wairoa syncline around 5 ma is probably related to a markedly different tectonic style in the new zealand region within the last 5 ma associated with a change in position of the euler poles of rotation for the pacific australian plates

gps derived strain in northwestern california termination of the san andreas fault system and convergence of the sierra nevada great valley block contribute to southern cascadia forearc contraction abstract gps derived velocities 1993 2002 in northwestern california show that processes other than subduction are in part accountable for observed upper plate contraction north of the mendocino triple junction mtj region after removing the component of elastic strain accumulation due to the cascadia subduction zone from the station velocities two additional processes account for accumulated strain in northern california the first is the westward convergence of the sierra nevada great valley sngv block toward the coast and the second is the north northwest impingement of the san andreas fault system from the south on the northern california coastal region in the vicinity of humboldt bay sierra nevada great valley block motion is northwest toward the coast convergent with the more northerly north northwest san andreas transform fault parallel motion in addition to the westward converging sierra nevada great valley block san andreas transform parallel shortening also occurs in the humboldt bay region approximately 22 mm yr of distributed pacific sngv motion is observed inland of cape mendocino across the northern projections of the maacama and bartlett springs fault zones but station velocities decrease rapidly north of cape mendocino the resultant 6 10 mm yr of san andreas fault parallel shortening occurs above the southern edge of the subducted gorda plate and at the latitude of humboldt bay part of the san andreas fault parallel shortening may be due to the viscous coupling of the southern edge of the gorda plate to overlying north american plate we conclude that significant portions of the upper plate contraction observed north of the mtj region are not solely a result of subduction of the gorda plate but also a consequence of impingement of the western edge of the sierra nevada great valley block and growth of the northernmost segments of the san andreas fault system

characterizing earthquake recurrence parameters for offshore faults in the low strain compressional kapiti manawatu fault system new zealand 1 seafloor fault scarps and near surface deformation of late quaternary seismic reflectors occur along the eastern margin of the wanganui basin 200 km behind the active hikurangi subduction front southern north island new zealand the offshore scarps are associated with the low strain compressional kapiti manawatu fault system kmfs which comprises high angle 60 reactivated reverse and normal faults oriented ne sw highly oblique to the coast seafloor scarps range from 10 m high and moderate to long fault seafloor rupture lengths and those in central parts of the fault system are characterized by low scarps 10 000 a suggest that the seismic hazard of the kapiti manawatu region is relatively low incorporation of these new geological data however is likely to increase slightly the expected seismic hazard in southern north island the method of determining the earthquake recurrence parameters of offshore faults has potentially wider applications elsewhere

the relative contribution of accretion shear and extension to cenozoic tectonic rotation in the pacific northwest large cenozoic clockwise rotations defined by paleomagnetic data are an established fact in the pacific northwest and many tectonic models have been proposed to explain them including 1 rotation of accreted oceanic microplates during docking 2 dextral shear between north america and northward moving oceanic plates to the west and 3 microplate rotation in front of an expanding basin and range province stratigraphic onlap relations and local structure indicate that microplate rotation during docking was not a major contributor to the observed rotations coast range structures basin and range extension and paleomagnetic data from middle miocene 15 ma coast range rocks indicate that dextral shear is responsible for at least 40 of the post 15 ma rotation of the coast range and that basin and range extension is responsible for the remainder reconstructions based on extrapolation of this ratio back to 37 and 50 ma are consistent with reconstructions based on paleomagnetic and stratigraphic relations in older rocks and suggest that dextral shear has been a significant contributor to rotation during most of tertiary time changes in the dextral shear rotation rate over the past 50 m y correlate directly with changes in the velocity of the farallon plate parallel to the coast and provide a strong argument for oblique subduction as the driving mechanism continental reconstructions incorporating shear may provide constraints on the rate of extension in the northernmost basin and range region and suggest 17 extension since 15 ma 39 since 37 ma and 72 since 50 ma near latitude 42 n

current tectonics of northern cascadia from a decade of gps measurements 1 global positioning system gps measurements to study regional deformation were initiated in northern cascadia in the late 1980s and early 1990s on the basis of a decade of gps data we derive a crustal velocity field for nw washington sw british columbia the permanent and campaign gps velocities are defined with respect to north america in the itrf2000 reference frame velocity uncertainties are estimated using a model of time series noise spectra this new velocity field is the basis for interpretation of the tectonics of the northern cascadia subduction system gps velocities are interpreted in terms of interseismic loading of the megathrust using different coupling models our data confirm that the upper part of the megathrust is nearly fully locked an exponential model for the downdip transition zone gives slightly better agreement with the data compared to the common linear transition the landward decrease of forearc strain loading is smaller than predicted by any of the current subduction interseismic models this could be a consequence of a small 0 3 mm yr long term motion of the southern vancouver island forearc with respect to north america or of a concentration of interseismic strain across the elastically weaker cascadia volcanic arc in northern vancouver island our velocity field supports the existence of an independent explorer microplate currently underthrusting underneath north america at least up to brooks peninsula further north gps velocities indicate transient and or permanent deformation of northernmost vancouver island related to the interaction with the explorer microplate and possibly with the queen charlotte transform margin

solar partitioning in a changing arctic sea ice cover the summer extent of the arctic sea ice cover has decreased in recent decades and there have been alterations in the timing and duration of the summer melt season these changes in ice conditions have affected the partitioning of solar radiation in the arctic atmosphere ice ocean system the impact of sea ice changes on solar partitioning is examined on a pan arctic scale using a 25 km 25 km equal area scalable earth grid for the years 1979 2007 daily values of incident solar irradiance are obtained from ncep reanalysis products adjusted by era 40 and ice concentrations are determined from passive microwave satellite data the albedo of the ice is parameterized by a five stage process that includes dry snow melting snow melt pond formation melt pond evolution and freeze up the timing of these stages is governed by the onset dates of summer melt and fall freeze up which are determined from satellite observations trends of solar heat input to the ice were mixed with increases due to longer melt seasons and decreases due to reduced ice concentration results indicate a general trend of increasing solar heat input to the arctic ice ocean system due to declines in albedo induced by decreases in ice concentration and longer melt seasons the evolution of sea ice albedo and hence the total solar heating of the ice ocean system is more sensitive to the date of melt onset than the date of fall freeze up the largest increases in total annual solar heat input from 1979 to 2007 averaging as much as 4 a 1 occurred in the chukchi sea region the contribution of solar heat to the ocean is increasing faster than the contribution to the ice due to the loss of sea ice

evidence for and implications of a bering plate based on geodetic measurements from the aleutians and western alaska 1 global positioning system gps measurements are used to examine the hypothesis of a clockwise rotating bering plate originally proposed on the basis of seismicity the bering plate encompasses the bering sea western alaska and the aleutian islands gps measurements from the bering plate s interior show south to southwest motions of 3 5 mm a where a is years we construct elastic dislocation models to determine the spatial distribution and intensity of locked patches on the aleutian subduction interface we use these to remove interseismic strain from the gps observation and determine an arc translation velocity for each region of the aleutians revealing south and southwest motions of 4 8 mm a we combine the arc translation rates with measurements from the bering plate s interior sites and estimate the euler pole for the bering plate relative to north america to be located at 42 5 n 121 3 e with an angular speed of 6 0 ma the clockwise rotation of the bering plate may cause left lateral faulting in interior alaska the bering plate s interaction with south central alaska may be responsible for the decreased slip rate on the western denali fault and for contraction across the central alaska range we analyze slip partitioning along the aleutian arc on the basis of both gps measurements and slip azimuths of thrust earthquakes and find a systematic discrepancy between plate convergence direction and slip azimuths we conclude that slip partitioning in the back arc only develops west of amchitka pass whereas slip partitioning in the fore arc is present throughout the arc

the lithospheric geodynamics of plate boundary transpression in new zealand initiating and emplacing subduction along the hikurangi margin and the tectonic evolution of the alpine fault system abstract in contrast to the normal wilson cycle sequence of subduction leading to continental collision and associated mountain building the evolution of the new zealand plate boundary in the neogene reflects the converse initially a period of continental convergence that is followed by the emplacement of subduction plate reconstructions allow us to place limits on the location and timing of the continental convergence and subduction zones and the migration of the transition between the two plate boundary regimes relative plate motions and reconstructions since the early to mid miocene require significant continental convergence in advance of the emplacement of the southward migrating hikurangi subduction a sequence of tectonism seen in the present plate boundary geography of hikurangi subduction beneath north island and convergence in the southern alps along the alpine fault in contrast to a transition from subduction to continental convergence where the leading edge of the upper plate is relatively thin and deformable the transition from a continental convergent regime with its associated crustal and lithospheric thickening to subduction of oceanic lithosphere requires substantial thinning removal of upper plate continental lithosphere to make room for the slab the simple structure of the wadati benioff zone seen in the present day geometry of the subducting pacific plate beneath north island indicates that this lithospheric adjustment occurs quickly associated with this rapid lithospheric thinning is the development of a series of ephemeral basins younging to the south that straddle the migrating slab edge based on this association between localized vertical tectonics and slab emplacement the tectonic history of these basins records the effects of lithospheric delamination driven by the southward migrating leading edge of the subducting pacific slab although the new zealand plate boundary is often described as simply two subduction zones linked by the transpressive alpine fault in actuality the present is merely a snapshot view of an ongoing and complex evolution from convergence to subduction

intermediate depth earthquakes beneath nelson new zealand and the southwestern termination of the subducted pacific plate 1 there has been debate on how convergence of mantle lithosphere is accommodated during continental collision in the central south island of new zealand whether by intracontinental subduction or continuous deformation of mantle lithosphere intermediate depth earthquakes are sparse beneath the central south island and abundant seismicity 130 230 km deep within the hikurangi subduction zone to the northeast ends abruptly beneath the nelson region of the northern south island this termination of seismicity has previously been interpreted as marking the southwestern edge of the subducted slab here we investigate the stress and strain regime at this termination of activity and find that it is very similar to that within the subducted plate both updip and along strike towards the northeast our results are consistent with subduction continuing further southwest albeit largely aseismically as suggested by shallow earthquakes in the northeastern south island

the kinematics of northern south island new zealand determined from geologic strain rates relative motions within the distributed plate boundary zone of northern south island new zealand are determined through an inversion of geologic strain rate estimates the quaternary fault slip rate estimates define the shear strain rates and rock uplift rates provide information on the horizontal divergence rates an erosion rate to rock uplift rate ratio along with a crustal compensation factor is estimated in order to convert rock uplift rates to horizontal divergence rates because of the uncertainty in erosion rates horizontal divergence rates are given a large standard error of the three horizontal strain rate components obtained from these data completely define the horizontal velocity gradient tensor strain rate distributions are matched with spline polynomial functions which can be constrained to behave rigidly within specified regions such as the pacific or australian plates inversion of the strain rate distribution assuming uniform erosion rates across the northern south island yields a velocity field that has small differences in both magnitude 10 larger and direction with the nuvel 1a plate motion model between pacific and australian plates a revised strain rate data set obtained from a variable erosion model in which erosion rates are a linear function of the log of the average annual rainfall magnitudes yields a velocity field with expected directions that are indistinguishable from the nuvel 1a plate motion model between pacific and australian plates but velocity magnitudes are still 10 15 higher than the plate motion model therefore the average values of slip rate on strike slip faults in marlborough required by the nuvel 1a plate motion model are typically close to the low end of the published range of slip values for those structures the major strike slip structures within the marlborough region are accommodating 80 100 of the total plate motion between australia and pacific plates on northern south island as much as 20 of the relative motion could be accommodated by shear generated by folding or thrust faulting with a single orientation between the major structures the magnitude of plate motion contributed by the major faults indicates that the distributed geodetic shear strains measured across northern south island and discussed by bibby 1981 and walcott 1984 are not a form of irrecoverable strain but rather a feature of the strain field that will eventually be released primarily as concentrated slip on the strike slip structures within the region strain modeling indicates that the earthquake moment release over the last 150 years within the northwest nelson province which is west of the marlborough region is at least half an order of magnitude higher than the long term rate of moment release overall the northwest nelson region is playing only a minor role in taking up the long term plate motion

influence of lithosphere viscosity structure on estimates of fault slip rate in the mojave region of the san andreas fault system 1 it is well known that slip rate estimates from geodetic data are nonunique because they depend on model assumptions and parameters that are often not known a priori estimates of fault slip rate on the mojave segment of the san andreas fault system derived from elastic block models and gps data are significantly lower than estimates from geologic data to determine the extent to which the slip rate discrepancy might be due to the oversimplified models of the rheology of the lithosphere we develop a two dimensional linear maxwell viscoelastic earthquake cycle model and simultaneously estimate fault slip rates and lithosphere viscosity structure in the mojave region the model consists of episodic earthquakes in an elastic crust overlying layers with different viscosities that represent the lower crust uppermost mantle and upper mantle we use gps measurements of postseismic relaxation following the 1992 landers earthquake triangulation measurements spanning 1932 1977 gps measurements of the contemporary velocity field and paleoseismic data along the san andreas fault we infer lower crustal 15 30 km depth viscosity of 1019 10 20 pa s uppermost mantle 30 60 km viscosity of 10 20 22 pa s and underlying upper mantle viscosity of 10 18 10 19 pa s consistent with inferences from laboratory experiments of relatively high viscosity lithospheric mantle and lower viscosity lower crust and underlying asthenospheric mantle we infer a 20 30 mm yr slip rate on the san andreas fault in agreement with the lower end of geologic estimates inversions of geodetic data with models that do not incorporate layered viscosity structure may significantly misestimate slip rates

long term slip rates and fault interactions under low contractional strain wanganui basin new zealand the newly mapped kapiti manawatu fault system kmfs in southern north island new zealand accommodated 3 5 km of basement throw over the last 3 myr along strike throw profiles are generated using seven stratigraphic markers interpreted from seismic reflection profiles acquired 3 km apart the profiles are symmetrical about their point of maximum displacement and cumulative profiles suggest that the reverse fault system behaves coherently the kmfs originates from the reactivation of extensional structures with fault lengths remaining constant over time contractional deformation started at circa 1750 400 ka maximum dip slip rates along individual faults are 1 77 0 53 and 0 74 0 22 mm yr 1 for the 0 120 and 120 1350 ka periods respectively the maximum cumulative throw rates across the kmfs are 4 9 1 5 and 1 5 0 5 mm yr 1 for the same periods long term strain rates across the kmfs are 2 5 times smaller than strain rates in the forearc basin of the hikurangi subduction margin located less than 100 km to the east the faults of the kmfs may extend to depth and link with the subducted pacific plate

data interpretation for in situ measurements of cohesive sediment erosion methods for interpreting data from in situ flume measurements of cohesive sediment dynamics are evaluated and a technique for estimating various erosion parameters using in situ measurements is proposed there is currently a lack of uniformity in analysis techniques for cohesive erosion data collected in flumes and with in situ instruments and the proposed technique resolves some of these inconsistencies the data set used in this study was derived from field experiments conducted with a straight benthic in situ flume in different aquatic environments in new zealand the experiments with stepwise increases in flow velocity revealed that peaks in the erosion rate at the beginning of each velocity step are most likely associated with heterogeneous bed structure as transient hydrodynamic effects due to the experimental procedure were found to be insignificant the field data showed an exponential decay of the erosion rate with time that is indicative of depth limited erosion these data are used to illustrate methods for the parameterization of the proposed semiempirical erosion equation taking into account the time dependency of the erosion process

surface rupture earthquakes over the last 1000 years in the wellington region new zealand and implications for ground shaking hazard the wellington region is cut by five active right lateral strike slip faults wairarapa wellington ohariu shepherds gully pukerua and wairau faults that have average recurrence intervals of meter scale surface rupture that range from 500 years to 5000 years and lateral slip rates that range from 1 to 10 mm yr only the wairarapa fault has ruptured since european settlement since circa a d 1840 paleoseismological studies on these faults have allowed the compilation of a complete record of surface rupture events over the past 1000 years in the wellington region within this time period there does not appear to be any temporal clustering of surface rupture events on adjacent faults the m 8 a d 1855 wairarapa earthquake did not trigger rupture on any other fault in the region the most recent surface faulting event on the wellington fault 290 440 cal years b p cal years are calendar years before a d 1950 does not coincide with rupture of any other onland fault and over 300 years separate the timing of the second most recent rupture on the wellington fault 660 720 cal years b p and the most recent rupture of the ohariu fault 1060 1140 cal years b p the most recent rupture of the shepherds gully pukerua fault is probably older than that of the ohariu fault the apparent nonclustering of surface rupture earthquakes in the wellington region has been documented only for the on land strike slip faults there are other possible seismogenic sources in the region and thus important issues remain to be addressed regarding the history of large earthquakes in the wellington region 1 the seismogenic potential and earthquake recurrence interval of the subduction thrust beneath wellington is not known 2 the timing of rupture events on the offshore portion of the wairau fault is not known and 3 paleoseismic data are not available for the section of the wellington fault north of the wellington hutt valley segment estimates of earthquake hazard in the wellington region for all return times greater than 50 years that incorporate paleoseismicity data are between one and two modified mercalli mm intensity units higher than the hazard based solely on the historical seismicity catalog and the hazard is spatially more variable using a deterministic attenuation model the level of shaking hazard approaches near maximum values within a return time of 500 years largely reflecting the recurrence interval 500 770 years of surface rupture earthquakes on the wellington fault inclusion of a plausible model for magnitude 8 subduction zone earthquakes does not affect the level of mm intensity in wellington region at return times greater than 500 years but does make a small contribution to the hazard at return times between 50 and 500 years

bending within the axial tectonic belt of new zealand in the last 9 myr from paleomagnetic data abstract tongaporutuan stage late miocene 11 6 myr sedimentary rocks at two localities within the axial tectonic belt of new zealand have a direction of magnetisation in which the declination is 020 11 and 030 8 d 95 the directions of magnetisation in rocks of similar age outside the belt have a declination like that of the earth s present axial dipole 360 the clockwise deviation of the declination is inferred to indicate bending of the rocks within the zone of deformation between the pacific and indian plates due to the oblique convergence of these plates

structure of the hanmer strike slip basin hope fault new zealand hanmer basin 10 x 20 km located in northern south island new zealand is evolving where two major segments of the dextral strike slip hope fault are projected to converge across a 6 to 7 km wide releasing step over the structural geometry and development of hanmer basin does not conform to traditional pull apart basin models the respective fault segments do not overlap but are indirectly linked along the southwest margin of the basin by an oblique normal fault the hope river segment terminates in an array of oblique normal faults along the northwestern basin range front and east west striking normal faults on the west hanmer plain faulted holocene alluvial fan surfaces indicate west hanmer basin is actively subsiding evolving under north south extension the conway segment along the southeastern margin of the basin terminates in a complex series of active fault traces small pop up ridges and graben depressions early basin fill sediments of pleistocene age are being folded elevated and dissected as the eastern part of hanmer basin is progressively inverted and destroyed by north south contraction the north margin of the basin is defined by a series of topographic steps caused by normal faulting outside of the area of the releasing step over these normal faults we interpret to reflect large scale upper crustal collapse of the hanging wall side of the hope fault new seismic reflection data and geologic mapping reveal a persistent longitudinal and lateral asymmetry to basin development four seismic stratigraphic sequences identified in the eastern sector of the basin thicken and are tilted southward with insequence lateral onlaps occurring to the north and east and also onto basement near the fault controlled basin margins the basin depocenter currently contains 1000 m of sediment adjacent to the south margin and is disrupted by faulting only at depth in the western part of the basin the sediment fill is thinner today the rate of basin deepening under transtension at the western end is matched by its progressive inversion and destruction under transpression in the eastern sector with the oldest basin fill now being recycled we propose a hybrid model for hanmer strike slip basin one in which geometric elements of a fault wedge basin downward and upward tipped spindle shaped ends are combined with those of a pull apart basin step over region between the major fault segments we also conclude that changes in fault geometry releasing and restraining bends and step overs at a variety of scales and over short distances control the development of the extensile and contractile parts of the basin and three dimensional basin asymmetry strain partitioning is complex and cannot be related simply to local reorientation of the regional stress field

enigmatic highly active left lateral shear zone in southwest japan explained by aseismic ridge collision global positioning system gps site velocities and earthquake focal mechanisms reveal an active left lateral shear zone cutting across kyushu in southwest japan surprisingly no active faults have been identified in association with this zone of rapid contemporary deformation to explain the existence of this shear zone we propose a model comprising subduction of an aseismic ridge kyushu palau ridge at the southwest end of the nankai trough because of rapid 40 mm yr along strike migration of the ridge we suggest that the ridge subduction point and resulting left lateral shear zone is never in one place long enough to enable the development of a through going fault zone that can be identified at the ground surface reconciling the mismatch between the gps seismological and geological data in this region our conceptual model is supported by numerical modeling results we also suggest that the along strike change in subducting plate buoyancy explains the recent counterclockwise rotation of the kyushu forearc documented in paleomagnetic studies as is found in many other western pacific subduction margins

the relationship between strain rates crustal thickening palaeomagnetism finite strain and fault movements within a deforming zone the deformation of continental lithosphere generally does not occur on a single fault but is distributed over a zone up to a few hundred kilometers wide if the deformation rate is constant throughout the zone and if the velocity is continuous everywhere and does not change with time the deformation gradient tensor can be obtained analytically this tensor directly determines the amount of crustal thickening and is related in a complicated manner to the finite strain tensor the declination of remnant magnetization measured within the zone can also be rotated by the deformation because palaeomagnetic measurements are generally made on rigid blocks which have not been deformed there is no simple relationship between such rotations and the finite strain expressions for all these quantities are obtained in terms of the velocity gradients which are taken to be constant the history of western north america is used to illustrate the relationship between the present deformation by strike slip and thrust motions the rotations of the remnant magnetization vectors and the shape of accreted terranes at the surface distributed deformation is taken up by motion on faults which separate the zone into blocks the displacement rate on the faults their strike and the finite rotations of the blocks are all controlled by the velocity gradients analytic expressions relating these quantities are obtained a deforming zone containing normal faults which crosses central greece takes up both strike slip and extension and illustrates the relationship between the structures within and the motion across the zone a similar but more complicated zone in northeastern iran involves both strike slip and shortening

late quaternary slip rates and slip partitioning on the alpine fault new zealand abstract published geological data on late quaternary offsets on the alpine fault new zealand have been assembled into a common format and analysed with respect to uncertainties uncertainties arise mainly from measurement of offset features relating apparent offsets to actual fault slip and dating the offset features despite the considerable uncertainties the data form a coherent set consistent with a relatively constant rate of strike slip of 27 5 mm year between milford sound and hokitika this rate represents 70 75 of the fault parallel interplate motion north of the confluence with the hope fault the rate drops substantially dip slip rates on the other hand show considerable variation along strike rising to a maximum of more than 10 mm year in the central section and decreasing to zero at the southern end partitioning of c 25 of the interplate slip on to structures east of the alpine fault occurs in the central section consistent with predictions from critical wedge models the partitioning of all the fault normal component of displacement on to other structures in the south may be related in part to a doubling in width of the deforming wedge to the east most probably however the fault normal displacement is mainly accommodated by underthrusting of the australian plate offshore due to a change in the nature of the crust from continental to oceanic

global mapping functions for the atmosphere delay at radio wavelengths i have developed expressions for calculating the ratios mapping functions of the line of sight hydrostatic and wet atmospheric path delays to their corresponding zenith delays at radio wavelengths for elevation angles down to 3 the coefficients of the continued fraction representation of the hydrostatic mapping function depend on the latitude and height above sea level of the observing site and on the day of the year the dependence of the wet mapping function is only on the site latitude by comparing with mapping functions calculated from radiosonde profiles for sites at latitudes between 43 s and 75 n the hydrostatic mapping function is seen to be more accurate than and of comparable precision to mapping functions currently in use which are parameterized in terms of local surface meteorology when the new mapping functions are used in the analysis of geodetic very long baseline interferometry vlbi data the estimated lengths of baselines up to 10 400 km long change by less than 5 mm as the minimum elevation of included data is reduced from 12 to 3 the independence of the new mapping functions from surface meteorology while having comparable accuracy and precision to those that require such input makes them particularly valuable for those situations where surface meteorology data are not available

up dip partitioning of displacement components on the oblique slip clarence fault new zealand abstract active strike slip faults in new zealand occur within an obliquely convergent plate boundary zone although the traces of these faults commonly delineate the base of mountain ranges they do not always accommodate significant shortening at the free surface along the active trace of clarence fault in northeastern south island new zealand displaced landforms and slickenside striations indicate predominantly horizontal displacements at the ground surface and a right lateral slip rate of ca 3 5 5 mm year during the holocene the inland kaikoura mountain range occupies the hanging wall of the fault and rises steeply from the active trace to altitudes of ca 3 km the geomorphology of the range indicates active uplift and mountain building which is interpreted to result in part from a vertical component of fault slip at depth these data are consistent with the fault accommodating oblique slip at depth aligned parallel to the plate motion vector and compatible with regional geodetic data and earthquake focal mechanisms oblique slip on the clarence fault at depth is partitioned at the free surface into 1 right lateral displacement on the fault and 2 hanging wall uplift produced by distributed displacement on small scale faults parallel to the main fault decoupling of slip components reflects an up dip transfer of fault throw to an off fault zone of distributed uplift such zones are common in the hanging walls of thrusts and reverse faults and support the idea that the dip of the oblique slip clarence fault steepens towards the free surface

late neogene and quaternary tectonics associated with northward growth of the san andreas transform fault northern california strain patterns within the forearc at a convergent margin adjacent to a passing fault fault trench triple junction show a systematic evolution we describe late neogene and quaternary deformation in northern coastal california in the last 3 m y associated with the migration of the mendocino triple junction deformation in the north american forearc near humbolt bay consists of a 30 km wide zone of on land contraction with a narrower zone of translation to the east the zone of subaerial contraction is part of the relatively wide southernmost extent of forearc contraction within the cascadia subduction zone net quaternary northeast southwest contraction across forearc thrust faults is at least 7 9 km and minimum fault slip rates on the six major thrust faults are 0 8 2 3 mm yr net right slip within the zone of translation is a minimum of 3 km south of the forearc translation is predominant in the north american plate and is accommodated along two major right lateral fault zones of the san andreas transform boundary the lake mountain and garberville fault zones discontinuous exposures of late neogene sediments along these faults near covelo and garberville respectively indicate that crustal contraction expressed by thrust faults and associated folding predated translational deformation at each site inception of contraction near covelo was related to inception of internal deformation of the gorda plate at 3 ma this contraction due to coupling of the convergent plates migrated northward in the forearc in advance of and at the rate of migration of the triple junction present day deformation near humboldt bay thus reflects contraction associated with subduction of the gorda plate and translation farther east associated with oblique convergence at the plate boundary as the triple junction migrates the strike slip faults of the san andreas transform boundary will extend to the north northwest into the present forearc and forearc strike slip faults will become faults of the san andreas system contractional structures near humboldt bay will then cease to be active and will be preserved in the geologic record in the same way as contractional structures are preserved farther south

rates of active faulting during late quaternary fluvial terrace formation at saxton river awatere fault new zealand a flight of faulted fluvial terraces at saxton river on the awatere fault northeast south island new zealand preserves the incremental slip history and detailed paleoearthquake chronology of this major strike slip fault here six fluvial terraces have been progressively displaced across the inland molesworth section of the fault with horizontal displacements ranging from 6 m for an ephemeral channel on the youngest terrace to 81 m for the riser above the oldest terrace new optically stimulated luminescence ages for abandonment of the two oldest terrace treads are 14 5 1 5 and 6 7 0 7 ka when combined with new measurements of incremental horizontal displacements and previous age data these new ages indicate that strike slip on this part of the awatere fault has been occurring at a near constant rate of 5 6 0 8 mm yr since ca 15 ka this rate is similar to recent slip rate estimates for an adjoining section of the same fault to the east which suggests that there is near complete slip transfer across the junction between the two fault strands comparison of the magnitudes and ages of the terrace riser displacements to the timing of paleoearthquakes on the molesworth section allows the mean per event horizontal displacement over the eight most recent surface rupture events to be estimated at 4 4 0 8 m between ca 5 ka and ca 2 ka surface rupturing earthquakes increased in frequency and decreased in their mean coseismic displacements to 2 6 m during this time the sense of local dip slip also shifted from north side up to south side up rapid incision of saxton river in the mid holocene may have caused a perturbation in the near surface stress directions acting on the fault plane beneath the saxton river valley forcing a change in the near surface fault geometry that resulted in the shift in sense of dip slip

seven million years of strike slip and related off fault deformation northeastern marlborough fault system south island new zealand the marlborough fault system mfs south island new zealand is remarkable for the oblique slip nature of its active faulting and can be placed in a framework of pacific australian pac aus plate motions and geodetic strain new zealand illustrates changing degrees of upper plate slip partitioning in an obliquely convergent margin that varies along strike in crustal type and subduction geometry in this paper we focus on the ne part of this transcurrent fault system especially the awatere fault which is the only marlborough fault to offset a major neogene basin strike slip on an ancestral eastern strand of this fault began after 7 4 6 4 ma later vertical axis rotation may have caused it to be abandoned in favor of the currently active strand since 7 ma at least 34 10 km of dextral slip has accrued on the awatere fault 6 km of slip has accrued on two nearby strands and 4 km has accrued on the currently active coastal strand comparison of miocene with late quaternary offsets suggests that rates of strike slip on the fault have been nearly constant or have possibly decelerated we interpret spatial and temporal patterns of strike slip in the mfs to reflect southward migration of transform motion resulting from increased pac aus plate convergence late neogene to present day shortening directions in ne south island are indicative of a partially slip partitioned margin slip partitioning diminishes southward as the underlying subduction interface becomes strongly coupled suggesting a simple mechanical relationship between these processes

a dislocation model of strain accumulation and release at a subduction zone strain accumulation and release at a subduction zone are attributed to stick slip on the main thrust zone and steady aseismic slip on the remainder of the plate interface this process can be described as a superposition of steady state subduction and a repetitive cycle of slip on the main thrust zone consisting of steady normal slip at the plate convergence rate plus occasional thrust events that recover the accumulated normal slip because steady state subduction does not contribute to the deformation at the free surface deformation observed there is completely equivalent to that produced by the slip cycle alone the response to that slip is simply the response of a particular earth model to embedded dislocations for a purely elastic earth model the deformation cycle consists of a coseismic offset followed by a linear in time recovery to the initial value during the interval between earthquakes for an elastic viscoelastic earth model elastic lithosphere over a viscoelastic asthenosphere the postearthquake recovery is not linear in time records of local uplift as a function of time indicate that the long term postseimic recovery is approximately linear suggesting that elastic earth models are adequate to describe the deformation cycle however the deformation predicted for amore simple elastic half space earth does not reproduce the deformation observed along the subduction zones in japna at all well if stick slip is restricted to the main thrust zone as recognized earlier by shimazaki seno and kato the uplift profiles could be explained if stick slips were postulated to extend along the plate interface beyond the main thrust zone to a depth of perhaps 100 km but independent evidence suggests that stick slip at such depths if unlikely less

evidence from gps measurements for contemporary interplate coupling on the southern hikurangi subduction thrust and for partitioning of strain in the upper plate the spatial extent and strength of contemporary coupling between the pacific and australian plates on the hikurangi subduction interface beneath the wellington region of new zealand are not well known consequently the potential for the plate interface to produce great thrust earthquakes or to load the major wellington and wairarapa faults in the overlying plate is also unknown to address these issues a gps network across the southern north island has been partially or wholly surveyed six times between 1992 and 1999 and yields well determined relative velocities between 82 points the relative velocity of the east coast with respect to the west coast across the 80 km width of the southern end of the north island is 14 mm yr 1 at an azimuth of 258 this is about one third of and closely parallel to the nuvel 1a relative velocity of the pacific with respect to the australian plate 39 4 mm yr 1 at 261 strain rate solutions indicate partitioning of contemporary strain with a 35 change in principal axis orientations across the network using elastic dislocation theory an inversion of the observed point velocities and their full variance covariance matrix determines the variation with depth of contemporary coupling at the subduction interface if uniform coupling is assumed then 100 coupling occurs from very shallow depths down to 29 1 km however if variable coupling is assumed it reaches 100 at depths between 16 and 24 km at greater depths there is a transition zone at least 20 km wide down to a depth of at least 40 km over which contemporary coupling diminishes to zero these depth ranges correlate moderately well with low angle thrust focal mechanisms recently obtained by other workers and indicate that the downdip width of the interface over which a great thrust earthquake could occur exceeds 100 km elastic dislocation models also explain the observed partitioning of strain with coulomb stress calculations indicating that the wairarapa fault is being loaded at seismogenic depths

the kinematics of the plate boundary zone through new zealand a comparison of short and long term deformations summary surveys of shear strain rates derived from repeated triangulation cover about one quarter of the area of the plate boundary zone through new zealand and are well distributed within it using a method developed by haines relating shear strains to the total strain and velocity fields the dilatational and rotational strain rates and the velocities within the deformed zone are derived the plate boundary zone is shown to be two dimensional for the most part in that gradients of the velocity along the length of the zone are small or zero the shear strain rates are not uniform however they reach a maximum along a central axis and decrease gradually to zero toward the sides nor are the two independent components of strain one involving shortening or extension perpendicular and the other shear parallel to the zone equally developed everywhere there is a clear geographic separation with shortening developed over the subduction thrust and shear developed behind in a zone of wrench faulting time variations in the strain field in part of the region above the subduction interface are related to changes in the degree of coupling across the interface a velocity field is computed the relative velocity of the two plates from this data agree very well with that derived from seafloor spreading data these strain and velocity fields derived from geodetic studies give the short term kinematics of the plate boundary zone the long term kinematics of the zone are estimated from 1 uplift and subsidence data which are related to changes in crustal thickness and hence to dilatational strain and 2 variation in the declination of primary magnetization in rocks of known age related to the rotational strain the rate of rotational strain has increased in time from about 2 to 3 myr 1 10 myr ago to about 9 myr 1 today the increase can be understood as a secondary effect of a developing compressional component increasing the coupling between the plates so that more of the motion parallel to the zone is accommodated by distributed shear and less by aseismic slip the rates of strain averaged over the last 1 myr or so and at a scale length of a few tens of kilometres are closely similar in distribution and magnitude to the strain rates derived from short term kinematics while therefore at scale lengths of a few hundred metres or so faulting is very important and the deformation is discontinuous with unstrained blocks faulted with large but uncertain slip against adjacent blocks the deformation at these longer scale lengths is continuous and regular the two consequences of this study are that 1 strain from geodetic data can be directly related to the average long term deformation and therefore can be an important tool in the study of deformation in regions of current tectonic activity and 2 at scale lengths of a few tens of kilometres the deformation of a region can be described as the deformation of a continuum and we can ignore the effects of faulting

fluid and deformation regime of an advancing subduction system at marlborough new zealand newly forming subduction zones on earth can provide insights into the evolution of major fault zone geometries from shallow levels to deep in the lithosphere and into the role of fluids in element transport and in promoting rock failure by several modes the transpressional subduction regime of new zealand which is advancing laterally to the southwest below the marlborough strike slip fault system of the northern south island is an ideal setting in which to investigate these processes here we acquired a dense high quality transect of magnetotelluric soundings across the system yielding an electrical resistivity cross section to depths beyond 100 km our data imply three distinct processes connecting fluid generation along the upper mantle plate interface to rock deformation in the crust as the subduction zone develops massive fluid release just inland of the trench induces fault fracture meshes through the crust above that undoubtedly weaken it as regional shear initiates narrow strike slip faults in the shallow brittle regime of interior marlborough diffuse in width upon entering the deeper ductile domain aided by fluids and do not project as narrow deformation zones deep subduction generated fluids rise from 100 km or more and invade upper crustal seismogenic zones that have exhibited historic great earthquakes on high angle thrusts that are poorly oriented for failure under dry conditions the fluid deformation connections described in our work emphasize the need to include metamorphic and fluid transport processes in geodynamic models

hope fault jordan thrust and uplift of the seaward kaikoura range new zealand in the northern south island of new zealand displacement at the pacific indian plate boundary is accommodated by the east north east striking right lateral strike slip marlborough fault system the southernmost marlborough fault is the hope fault the late pleistocene holocene horizontal slip rate on this fault is 20 25 mm yr about half of the rate of pacific australian plate motion near the eastern end of the hope fault most displacement is transferred to the north northeast striking jordan thrust but the average dip slip rate at the surface trace of this thrust is less than 4 mm yr we propose that most slip takes place on a blind thrust expressed at the surface by the fault propagation folding of the seaward kaikoura range and that the rate of uplift of this range is as high as that of the southern alps 6 to 10 mm yr the major restraining bend of the alpine fault has the same average slip rate as the wairau fault 4 6 mm yr even though the alpine fault is an east dipping reverse separation fault at the restraining bend this low slip rate results in uplift of the spenser mountains east of the bend at a rate lower than that of the southern alps and seaward kaikoura range

tectonic and geological framework for gas hydrates and cold seeps on the hikurangi subduction margin new zealand the imbricated frontal wedge of the central hikurangi subduction margin is characteristic of wide ca 150 km poorly drained and over pressured low taper not vert similar 4 thrust systems associated with a relatively smooth subducting plate a thick trench sedimentary sequence not vert similar 3 4 km weak basal decollement and moderate convergence rate not vert similar 40 mm yr new seismic reflection and multibeam bathymetric data are used to interpret the regional tectonic structures and to establish the geological framework for gas hydrates and fluid seeps we discuss the stratigraphy of the subducting and accreting sequences characterize stratigraphically the location of the interplate decollement and describe the deformation of the upper plate thrust wedge together with its cover sequence of miocene to recent shelf and slope basin sediments we identify approximately the contact between an inner foundation of deforming late cretaceous and paleogene rocks in which widespread out of sequence thrusting occurs and a 65 70 km wide outer wedge of late cenozoic accreted turbidites although part of a seamount ridge is presently subducting beneath the deformation front at the widest part of the margin the morphology of the accretionary wedge indicates that frontal accretion there has been largely uninhibited for at least 1 2 myr this differs from the offshore hawkes bay sector of the margin to the north where a substantial seamount with up to 3 km of relief has been subducted beneath the lower margin resulting in uplift and complex deformation of the lower slope and a narrow 10 20 km active frontal wedge five areas with multiple fluid seep sites referred to informally as wairarapa uruti ridge omakere ridge rock garden and builders pencil typically lie in 700 1200 m water depth on the crests of thrust faulted anticlinal ridges along the mid slope uruti ridge sites also lie in close proximity to the eastern end of a major strike slip fault rock garden sites lie directly above a subducting seamount structural permeability is inferred to be important at all levels of the thrust system there is a clear relationship between the seeps and major seaward vergent thrust faults near the outer edge of the deforming cretaceous and paleogene inner foundation rocks this indicates that thrust faults are primary fluid conduits and that poor permeability of the cretaceous and paleogene inner foundation focuses fluid flow to its outer edge the sources of fluids expelling at active seep sites along the middle slope may include the inner parts of the thrust wedge and subducting sediments below the decollement within anticlinal ridges beneath the active seep sites there is a conspicuous break in the bottom simulating reflector bsr and commonly a seismically resolvable shallow fault network through which fluids and gas percolate to the seafloor no active fluid venting has yet been recognized over the frontal accretionary wedge but the presence of a widespread bsr an extensive protothrust zone 200 km by 20 km in the hikurangi trough and two unconfirmed sites of possible previous fluid expulsion suggest that the frontal wedge could be actively dewatering there are presently no constraints on the relative fluid flux between the frontal wedge and the active mid slope fluid seeps article outline

erosional control on the structural evolution of a transpressional thrust complex on the alpine fault new zealand abstract the waikukupa thrust is a 4 km long oblique thrust segment of the new zealand alpine fault that has developed over the last 65 000 years emplacing mylonite and cataclasite over fluvioglacial gravel during the last 20 000 years or so a 2 km long out of sequence imbricate the hare mare thrust has formed on the east side of the waikukupa river valley the average rate of slip on the two thrusts is estimated at 22 30 mm year analysis of the fault structure in terms of critical wedge theory is consistent with imbrication resulting from a reduction in wedge taper below the critical value due to rapid river erosion the internal structure of the waikukupa thrust sheet consists of reverse faults and angular folds forming duplex like systems associated with minor strike slip faults within the limits of uncertainty the structures are consistent with strain accumulating during internal transpressional shear of the thrust sheet while the taper of the latter was subcritical prior to the transfer of fault displacement to the hare mare imbricate the thrust complex forms part of a serrated range front fault system consisting of oblique thrust sections linked by strike slip faults we introduce the term serial partitioning for this type of partitioned transpressional fault system its development is linked to the erosional processes at the range front an alternative system consisting of parallel thrust and strike slip faults we here term parallel partitioning while angle of obliquity is an important parameter in determining which partitioning model develops we suggest that erosion rate is also an influential factor

the transition from subduction to continental collision crustal structure in the north canterbury region new zealand summary the north canterbury region marks the transition from pacific plate subduction to continental collision in the south island of new zealand details of the seismicity structure and tectonics of this region have been revealed by an 11 week microearthquake survey using 24 portable digital seismographs arrival time data from a well recorded subset of microearthquakes have been combined with those from three explosions at the corners of the microearthquake network in a simultaneous inversion for both hypocentres and velocity structure the velocity structure is consistent with the crust in north canterbury being an extension of the converging chatham rise the crust is about 27 km thick and consists of an 11 km thick seismic upper crust and 7 km thick seismic lower crust with the middle part of the crust being relatively aseismic seismic velocities are consistent with the upper and middle crust being composed of greywacke and schist respectively while several lines of evidence suggest that the lower crust is the lower part of the old oceanic crust on which the overlying rocks were originally deposited the distribution of relocated earthquakes deeper than 15 km indicates that the seismic lower crust changes dip markedly near 43 s to the south west it is subhorizontal while to the north east it dips north west at about lo fault plane solutions for these earthquakes also change near 43 s for events to the south p axes trend approximately normal to the plate boundary reflecting continental collision while for events to the north t axes are aligned down the dip of the subducted plate reflecting slab pull while lithospheric subduction is continuous across the transition it is not clear whether the lower crust near 43 s is flexed or

temporal stability of deformation rates comparison of geological and geodetic observations hikurangi subduction margin new zealand abstract we examine how well contemporary horizontal velocity fields from global positioning system gps geodetic measurements describe long term deformation rates million year rates of extension shortening strike slip and vertical axis rotations are compared with modelling of gps velocities from the last 10 15 years in the hikurangi subduction margin new zealand within measurement uncertainties of mainly 50 the rates of deformation and vertical axis rotations for each time interval are usually indistinguishable the comparable deformation rates are consistent with the notion of near constant rates since 1 5 ma during this time oblique relative plate motion was partitioned with the majority 85 of margin normal motion accommodated on the plate interface and most 60 margin parallel motion by strike slip faulting and vertical axis rotations in the upper plate prior to 1 5 ma gps velocities cannot be reliably used to describe deformation and rotations of the hikurangi margin because at this time the taupo rift commenced opening the boundary between raukumara and wairoa rotational domains was abandoned and the rates of upper plate shortening increased the broad compatibility of gps and geological deformation and rotation rates since 1 5 ma suggests that the build up of contemporary elastic strains in the north island measured by gps is largely uniform for much of the duration of each seismic cycle the good agreement between the gps and geological deformation rates in the north island is consistent with the view that contemporary elastic strains will mainly be converted to permanent dip slip on the subduction thrust and to displacement on upper plate faults during future large magnitude earthquakes

balancing the plate motion budget in the south island new zealand using gps geological and seismological data summary the landmass of new zealand exists as a consequence of transpressional collision between the australian and pacific plates providing an excellent opportunity to quantify the kinematics of deformation at this type of tectonic boundary we interpret gps geological and seismological data describing the active deformation in the south island new zealand by using an elastic rotating block approach that automatically balances the pacific australia relative plate motion budget the data in new zealand are fit to within uncertainty when inverted simultaneously for angular velocities of rotating tectonic blocks and the degree of coupling on faults bounding the blocks we find that most of the plate motion budget has been accounted for in previous geological studies although we suggest that the porter s pass amberley fault zone in north canterbury and a zone of faults in the foothills of the southern alps may have slip rates about twice that of the geological estimates up to 5 mm yr 1 of active deformation on faults distributed within the southern alps 100 km to the east of the alpine fault is possible the role of tectonic block rotations in partitioning plate boundary deformation is less pronounced in the south island compared to the north island vertical axis rotation rates of tectonic blocks in the south island are similar to that of the pacific plate suggesting that edge forces dominate the block kinematics there the southward migrating chatham rise exerts a major influence on the evolution of the new zealand plate boundary we discuss a model for the development of the marlborough fault system and hikurangi subduction zone in the context of this migration

the kinematics of a transition from subduction to strike slip an example from the central new zealand plate boundary 1 we develop a kinematic model for the transition from subduction beneath the north island new zealand to strike slip in the south island constrained by gps velocities and active fault slip data to interpret these data we use an approach that inverts the kinematic data for poles of rotation of tectonic blocks and the degree of interseismic coupling on faults in the region convergence related to the hikurangi subduction margin becomes very low offshore of the northern south island indicating that in this region the majority of the relative plate motion has been transferred onto faults within the upper plate as suggested by previous studies this result has implications for understanding the likely extent of subduction interface earthquake rupture in central new zealand easterly trending strike slip faults such as the boo boo fault are the key features that facilitate the transfer of strike slip motion from the northern south island faults further north into the southern north island and onto the hikurangi subduction thrust our results also indicate that the transition from rapid forearc rotation adjacent to the hikurangi subduction margin to a strike slip dominated plate boundary with negligible vertical axis rotation in the south island occurs via a crustal scale hinge or kink in the upper plate compatible with paleomagnetic and structural geological data despite the ongoing tectonic evolution of the central new zealand region our study highlights a remarkable consistency between data sets spanning decades gps thousands of years active faulting data and millions of years paleomagnetic data and bedrock structure