Active folding of Pleistocene unconformities on the edge of the Australian-Pacific plate boundary zone, offshore North Canterbury, New Zealand

Tectonics ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip M. Barnes
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Plate Boundary ◽  
Pacific Plate ◽  
Boundary Zone ◽  
Active Folding ◽  
Plate Boundary Zone

Sub-crustal earthquakes within the Australia–Pacific plate boundary zone beneath the Southern Alps, New Zealand

2013 ◽  
Vol 376 ◽  
pp. 212-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.M. Boese ◽  
T.A. Stern ◽  
J. Townend ◽  
S. Bourguignon ◽  
A. Sheehan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Plate Boundary ◽  
Pacific Plate ◽  
Southern Alps ◽  
Boundary Zone ◽  
Crustal Earthquakes ◽  
Plate Boundary Zone

Geodetic strain and the deformational history of the North Island of New Zealand during the late Cainozoic

1987 ◽  
Vol 321 (1557) ◽  
pp. 163-181 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Subduction Zone ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Plate Boundary ◽  
Boundary Zone ◽  
Metamorphic Belt ◽  
Volcanic Region ◽  
The North ◽  
Plate Boundary Zone

The subduction zone under the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand comprises, from east to west, a frontal wedge, a fore-arc basin, uplifted basement forming the arc and the Central Volcanic Region. Reconstructions of the plate boundary zone for the Cainozoic from seafloor spreading data require the fore-arc basin to have rotated through 60° in the last 20 Ma which is confirmed by palaeomagnetic declination studies. Estimates of shear strain from geodetic data show that the fore-arc basin is rotating today and that it is under extension in the direction normal to the trend of the plate boundary zone. The extension is apparently achieved by normal faulting. Estimates of the amount of sediments accreted to the subduction zone exceed the volume of the frontal wedge: underplating by the excess sediments is suggested to be the cause of late Quaternary uplift of the fore-arc basin. Low-temperature—high-pressure metamorphism may therefore be occurring at depth on the east coast and high-temperature—low-pressure metamorphism is probable in the Central Volcanic Region. The North Island of New Zealand is therefore a likely setting for a paired metamorphic belt in the making.

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