Movement along the Alpine Fault is deforming the continent of Zealandia, with the southern part (on the Pacific Plate) sliding past and slightly onto the northwest part (on the Australian Plate).
Map of active Alpine Fault on land (red). Click on the map to enable mouse over of fault features.[1]
Etymology
Southern Alps
Country
New Zealand
Region
West Coast and Southland Regions
Characteristics
Range
Southern Alps
Length
600 km (370 mi)
Strike
NE-SW
Displacement
30 mm (1.2 in)/yr
Tectonics
Plate
Australian, Pacific
Status
Active
Earthquakes
1717 prehistoric
Type
Strike-slip fault
Movement
Up to Mw8.2,[2] dextral/convergent, east side up
Age
Miocene-Holocene 12–0.0003 Ma[3]
PreꞒ
Ꞓ
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
Orogeny
Kaikoura
New Zealand geology database (includes faults)
Snow delineates the escarpment formed by the Alpine Fault along the Southern Alps' north-west edge, near the South Island's west coast. This satellite image shows the aftermath of a blizzard that hit the island in July 2003.
The Alpine Fault is a geological fault that runs almost the entire length of New Zealand's South Island, being about 600 km (370 mi).[n 1] long, and forms the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Australian Plate.[4] The Southern Alps have been uplifted on the fault over the last 12 million years in a series of earthquakes. However, most of the motion on the fault is strike-slip (side to side), with the Tasman district and West Coast moving north and Canterbury and Otago moving south. The average slip rates in the fault's central region are about 38 mm (1.5 in) a year, very fast by global standards.[5] The last major earthquake on the Alpine Fault was in about 1717 AD with a great earthquake magnitude of Mw8.1± 0.1.[2] The probability of another one occurring before 2068 was estimated at 75 percent in 2021.[6][7]
^"GNS:New Zealand Active Faults Database". Retrieved 2023-04-29.
^ abCite error: The named reference Howarth2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Cochran2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Alpine Fault / Major Faults in New Zealand / Earthquakes / Science Topics / Learning / Home – GNS Science". www.gns.cri.nz. Retrieved 2023-10-11.
^Graham 2015, pp. 120.
^"Research finds Alpine Fault quake more likely in the next 50 years, Our Science, 01 June 2021". www.gns.cri.nz. 1 June 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
^"Alpine Fault: Probability of damaging quake higher than previously thought". www.rnz.co.nz. 20 April 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
Cite error: There are <ref group=n> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=n}} template (see the help page).
The AlpineFault is a geological fault that runs almost the entire length of New Zealand's South Island, being about 600 km (370 mi). long, and forms the...
A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. It ends abruptly where it connects...
Alpine climate, climate that is typical to higher altitudes Alpine tundra, a type of natural region or biome Alpine orogeny, in geology AlpineFault,...
earthquakes on the AlpineFault and other nearby faults. Despite the substantial uplift, most of the relative motion along the AlpineFault is transverse,...
Escarpment New Zealand The western slope of the Southern Alps (along the AlpineFault) The Kaimai escarpment, above the Hauraki Plains The Paekakariki escarpment...
The resulting displacement by approximately 500 km (310 mi) along the AlpineFault is evident in geological maps. Movement along this plate boundary also...
Cambridge University Press, p. 23, ISBN 978-0521190855 "GNS Science, AlpineFault". Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Ltd. Bendick, R.; Bilham...
Island is divided in two by the AlpineFault, which runs through the Region in a North-East direction. To the West of the fault Paleozoic basement rocks are...
plate boundary continues inland along the Marlborough Fault System, linking through to the AlpineFault. Here the plates converge much more obliquely, exhibiting...
than Mw7 in magnitude. These are parallel to, and to the east of the AlpineFault in the south eastern part of the South Island of New Zealand. It accommodates...
on plate tectonics. He is notable for his discovery of South Island's AlpineFault. Wellman became a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1954...
transfer displacement between the mainly transform plate boundary of the Alpinefault and the mainly destructive boundary of the Kermadec Trench, and together...
of New Zealand but the direction of subduction reverses south of the AlpineFault where the Australian Plate starts subducting under the Pacific Plate...
Resolution Ridge off the south western tip of New Zealand's Fiordland and the AlpineFault continues north as the plate boundary. The southern part of the trench...
marked by the AlpineFault. South of New Zealand the boundary becomes a transitional transform-convergent boundary, the Macquarie Fault Zone, where the...
of New Zealand forming the Tonga Trench and the Kermadec Trench. The AlpineFault marks a transform boundary between the two plates, and further south...
Erhai or Er Lake (Chinese: 洱海; pinyin: Ěrhǎi), is an alpinefault lake in Dali City, Dali Prefecture, Yunnan province, China. Erhai was also known as Yeyuze...
Environment Canterbury). To the west of the Southern Alps lies the AlpineFault, a major fault boundary, that passes through the South Island from Fiordland...
and Marlborough, and Torlesse rocks just to the East of the AlpineFault). The AlpineFault that corresponds to the line of the Southern Alps has separated...
over geological time: Geological processes: migration of tectonic plates, faulting and folding, mountain formation, volcanic eruptions, etc. Erosional processes:...
fault zones and earthquakes in New Zealand, Japan and Ecuador. She is one of the leaders of the Deep Fault Drilling Project of New Zealand's Alpine Fault...
AlpineFault goes through the lake. Researchers from GNS Science and University of Nevada, Reno have studied sediments from the 24 last AlpineFault earthquakes...
The junction between the Hope fault and the AlpineFault is complex. The Kelly Fault forms a major splay of the Hope Fault from just west of Harper Pass;...
The plate boundary forms the nearly 800 kilometres (500 mi) long AlpineFault. This fault has an estimated rupture reoccurrence interval of ~330 years, and...
Tongan islands. There is a transform fault that currently traverses New Zealand's South Island, known as the AlpineFault. Zealandia's continental shelf has...
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