New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics abstracts
Cenozoic bending of New Zealand basement terranes and Alpine Fault
displacement: a brief review
RUPERT SUTHERLAND
Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences
P.O. Box 30 368
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
email: r.sutherland@gns.cri.nz
Abstract It is now possible to accurately reconstruct late
Eocene-Recent positions of the Australian plate with respect to the Pacific
plate. Rates of plate displacement through New Zealand were slow in
Eocene-Oligocene time, and increased rapidly in Miocene time as the pole of
rotation migrated southeast. Reconstruction of Maitai Terrane rocks suggests
they had a smooth and continuously curved geometry through New Zealand in late
Eocene time, which was probably similar to their Late Cretaceous configuration.
This analysis implies that most or all Alpine Fault offset occurred after
45 Ma, and suggests about half the Eocene-Recent plate displacement was
partitioned onto the Alpine Fault, and half was accommodated by distributed
crustal shear. Estimates of Pliocene and Quaternary Alpine Fault displacement
rate suggest the proportion of plate boundary displacement partitioned onto the
Alpine Fault may have increased with time, displacement rate, and total
displacement.
Keywords Alpine Fault; Cenozoic; deformation; orocline;
structure; tectonics; New Zealand; reconstruction; bending
New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 1999, Vol. 42: 295-301
0028-8306/99/4202-0295 $7.00/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
1999
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (832K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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