A Continental Plate Boundary Tectonics at South Island, New Zealand

About this book

A Continental Plate Boundary offers in one place the most comprehensive, up-to-date knowledge for researchers and students to learn about the tectonics and plate dynamics of the Pacific-Australian continental plate boundary in South Island and about the application of modern geological and geophysical methods. It examines what happens when convergence and translation occur at a plate boundary by
- Describing the geological and geophysical signature of a continental transform fault;
- Identifying the diverse vertical and lateral patterns of deformation at the plate boundary;
- Assessing an apparent seismicity gap on the plate boundary fault and fast-moving plate motions;
- Comparing this plate boundary to other global convergent continental strike-slip plate boundaries;
- Documenting the utility of the double-sided, onshore-offshore seismic method for exploration of a narrow continental island; and
- Providing additional papers presenting previously unpublished results.

A Continental Plate Boundary will prove invaluable for seismologists, tectonophysicists, geodesists and potential-field geophysicists, geologists, geodynamicists, and students of the deformation of tectonic plates.

Contents

Preface vii
      David Okaya, Tim Stern, and Fred Davey
Continent-Continent Collision at the Pacific/Indo-Australian Plate Boundary: Background, Motivation, and Principal Results 1
      David Okaya, Tim Stern, Fred Davey, Stuart Henrys, and Simon Cox

SECTION I: Regional Framework of Pacific/Indo-Australian Plate Boundary
Regional Geological Framework of South Island, New Zealand, and its Significance for Understanding the Active Plate Boundary 19
      Simon C. Cox and Rupert Sutherland
Geophysical Structure of the Southern Alps Orogen, South Island, New Zealand 47
      F.J. Davey, D. Eberhart-Phillips, M.D. Kohler, S. Bannister, G. Caldwell, S. Henrys, M. Scherwath, T. Stern, and H. van Avendonk
Kinematic Constraints From GPS on Oblique Convergence of the Pacific and Australian Plates, Central South Island, New Zealand 75
      John Beavan, Susan Ellis, Laura Wallace, and Paul Denys
Seismic Anisotropy in South Island, New Zealand 95
      Martha Kane Savage, Mathieu Duclos, Katrina Marson-Pidgeon
Crustal Thickness and Pn Anisotropy Beneath the Southern Alps Oblique Collision, New Zealand 117
      S. Bourguignon, M. K. Savage and T. Stern
Compressional and Shear Wave Velocities in South Island New Zealand Rocks and Their Application to the Interpretation of Seismological Models of the New Zealand Crust 125
      Nikolas I. Christensen and David A. Okaya

SECTION II: The Plate Boundary (Alpine Fault) & Associated Mountain Building (Southern Alps)
The Alpine Fault, New Zealand: Surface Geology and Field Relationships 159
      Richard J. Norris and Alan F. Cooper
Deformation of the Pacific Plate Above the Alpine Fault Ramp and its Relationship to Expulsion of Metamorphic Fluids: An Array of Backshears 179
      Ruth H. Wightman and Timothy A. Little
Geophysical Exploration and Dynamics of the Alpine Fault Zone 209
      Tim Stern, David Okaya, Stefan Kleffmann, Martin Scherwath, Stuart Henrys, and Fred Davey
Do Great Earthquakes Occur on the Alpine Fault in Central South Island, New Zealand? 237
      R. Sutherland, D. Eberhart-Phillips, R.A. Harris, T. Stern, J. Beavan, S. Ellis, S. Henrys, S. Cox, R.J. Norris, K.R. Berryman, J. Townend, S. Bannister, J. Pettinga, B. Leitner, L. Wallace, T.A. Little, A.F. Cooper, M. Yetton, and M. Stirling

SECTION III: Plate Boundary Dynamics
Three-Dimensional Geodynamic Framework for the Central Southern Alps, New Zealand: Integrating Geology, Geophysics and Mechanical Observations 255
      Phaedra Upton and Peter O. Koons
Transpression Models and Ductile Deformation of the Lower Crust of the Pacific Plate in the Central Southern Alps, a Perspective From Structural Geology 273
      Timothy Little, Ruth Wightman, Rodney J. Holcombe, and Matthew Hill
Modeling Strain and Anisotropy Along the Alpine Fault, South Island, New Zealand 291
      M. K. Savage, A. Tommasi, S. Ellis, and J. Chery

SECTION IV: Comparisons
A Comparison Between the Transpressional Plate Boundaries of South Island, New Zealand, and Southern California, USA: The Alpine and San Andreas Fault Systems 309
      Gary S. Fuis, Monica D. Kohler, Martin Scherwath, Uri ten Brink, Harm J.A. Van Avendonk, and Janice M. Murphy
Taiwan and South Island, New Zealand—A Comparison of Continental Collisional Orogenies 331
   F. Wu, F. Davey, and D. Okaya
Seismogenic, Electrically Conductive, and Fluid Zones at Continental Plate Boundaries in New Zealand, Himalaya, and California, USA 349
      George R. Jiracek, Victor M. Gonzalez, T. Grant Caldwell, Philip E. Wannamaker, and Debi Kilb

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