The surface rupture in Kaikōura was around 180km of fault – in this Alpine Fault event, we're talking about at least twice that length.". In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. There is also a chance the redistribution of stress may cause other faults around the central South Island to generate quakes of comparable magnitude to the largest aftershocks. It was certainly very close, but that is not unusual – there are a lot of smaller active faults in that region. That resulted in about 250km of movement along the Alpine Fault but in the opposite direction to the way the fault is moving today. It forms a transform boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. How about if Sunday's Big Bay quake had been followed by more quakes of similar or larger magnitude up and down that section of the fault? The Pacific Plate and Indo-Australian Plate boundary forms the Macquarie Fault Zone in the Puysegur Trench off the southwestern corner of the South Island and comes onshore as the Alpine Fault just north of Milford Sound. It's GPS that has changed things from when we started working there 20 or 30 years ago, when you didn't really know where you were when you got into the bush.". By that time the sea floor spreading had stopped and the land had begun to sink, resulting in characteristic marine deposits: calcareous and fossiliferous, with common limestone. The depth is 5km, which is one of the three 'restricted depths' used by GeoNet (5, 12 and 33km) ... when depth cannot be reliably constrained. We know far better the characteristics of the fault, and its likely behaviour when it does rupture. The Big Bay quake occurred where the Alpine Fault is changing its form as it gets closer to where it runs offshore and into the Puysegur subduction zone. The Alpine Fault ruptures in a massive earthquake every 300 years, on average, and the last big one was in 1717. There are no volcanoes because those are created from convergent plate boundary subduction. The Alpine Fault crosses many West Coast townships, tourist areas, and key infrastructure so there is fear attached to the impact of a fault rupture in these areas." This is it: Franz Josef. "You only know something is a foreshock once it is followed by something larger, but you can't tell that at the time," Orchiston says. strike-slip movement on the Alpine Fault. The physical environment along the Alpine Fault is very challenging with annual rainfall of 5-8 metres and steep slopes that are prone to landsliding, which obscures the fault in many locations. The next largest known fault displacement on land was on the Altyn Tagh Fault in Tibet, with a total movement of about 475km. The Alpine Fault crossing Calf Paddock at Marble Hill, near Springs Junction. Without it, there would be no uplift forming the Southern Alps, no rain forest and unique fauna on the western side of the divide, no hot foehn nor'wester blasting down the Canterbury Plains. Willkommen auf der offiziellen Website von Alpine Cars. Langridge says if the quake is of magnitude 8.0 or higher, "it would have to have some magnitude 7 aftershocks". It is the line along which the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates are being pushed together. The movement of the two plates results and a LOT of earthquakes. Despite thick beech forest and swamp "well worth steering clear of", there are walking tracks in the area. Read "Using geochemical fingerprinting to determine transpressive fault movement history: Application to the New Zealand Alpine Fault, Tectonics" on DeepDyve, the largest online rental service for scholarly research with thousands of academic publications available at your fingertips. Then I climbed the steps to see him, he patiently explained once more the movement on the Alpine Fault, which had seemed so clear to him but which took others years more to see. The movement on faults causes fractures and alignment of minerals in the adjacent rocks. With the same length as the Great Lakes Tectonic Zone, the Alpine Fault can be found at New Zealand’s South Island. Franz Josef is quiet. In March 2009, more than 60 of the world's best quake scientists were in Franz Josef to plan the fault-drilling project. It had been thought movement along the Alpine Fault was getting faster. The Alpine Fault. GNS Science earthquake geologists studying layers in the trench across the Alpine Fault at Springs Junction. The physical environment along the Alpine Fault is very challenging with annual rainfall of 5-8 metres and steep slopes that are prone to landsliding, which obscures the fault in many locations. GNS Science principal scientist Dr Kelvin Berryman has been to the Big Bay and Lake McKerrow area several times on foot and by helicopter to study the fault. When will the Alpine Fault next rupture? Analysis this week has cast doubt on that, with the consensus view it was probably caused by movement on a fault alongside and very close to the Alpine Fault. A commonly held view is that the orocline originated as a gigantic drag fold with Alpine Fault movement. Shallow Fluid Movement in the Hanging Wall of the Alpine Fault ... i The Alpine Fault. 7. "However, it would be too much of a stretch to assert that the recent earthquake is an Alpine Fault foreshock. It is the line along which the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates are being pushed together. ALPINE FAULT ... dominant movement on the fault is horizontal as shown by circle symbols at the base of the figure (arrow away/towards). Approximate rupture dates are 1717AD, 1620 AD, 1450 AD, and 1100 AD. Alpine topography in Norway is largely fault-controlled. The 300 km long South Westland Fault Zone (SWFZ) is within the footwall of the Central Alpine Fault (<20 km away) and has 3500 m of dip‐slip displacement, but it has been unknown if the fault is active. The movement of … On the other hand there have been a number of It forms a transform boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. No thumping helicopters, just one tourist coach parked on a side road, a few visitors puddle-jumping along the street hunkered under umbrellas, restaurant owners looking hopeful. A member of the audience asks about aftershocks. Whataroa's Alpine Fault Tours takes people to the well-known exposure of the fault at the nearby Gaunt Creek. N.Z. The fault runs hundreds of kilometres up the spine of the South Island, from Fiordland along the western edge of the Southern Alps. 52. assistant with the Geological Survey in 1934, he studied geology. The Alpine Fault is a geological fault, specifically a right-lateral strike-slip fault, that runs almost the entire length of New Zealand’s South Island. The Alpine Fault, and the recurved arc structures (orocline) in the late Palaeozoic-Mesozoic Rangitata Orogen, are two of the first-order structures of the New Zealand subcontinent. Below is a close up of the Alpine Fault. The finding underscored the fact the Alpine Fault was the big seismic hazard in the South Island and had been for a "very, very long time", Lamb said. The Alpine Fault is a fault located in the South Island of New Zealand running through the middle for about 600 kilometers. The Alpine Fault last got seriously testy in 1717 or thereabouts and before that, in descending order, 1620, 1430 and 1100. Tonight it's Franz Josef's turn. Mar ch 201 1. The result is a major earthquake along the Alpine fault. The Alpine Fault has moved much more than previously thought, and more than any other known fault on land in the world, new research shows. Introduction: Although the Alpine Fault has the potential to cause catastrophic damage on the West Coast, and elsewhere in the South Island, should there be major movement along all or part of its length, there has been no such movement in historical times. Most of the movement along the fault is horizontal (sideways), but there is also a vertical component. Researchers have found each major earthquake results in an average of about 2m of uplift and up to 8m of horizontal slip along around 400km of the fault. It has shaped the South Island in so many ways, she says. The idea was exciting but it was followed by a large amount of work. The idea occurred to him only about six months ago, Lamb said. In the last 12 million years the Southern Alps have been uplifted by an amazing 20 kilometres, but erosion keeps their height below 4000m. Funded to the tune of about $650,000 by the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, with similar contributions from the scientific community, it fills a gap in terms of the effects the impending earthquake will have on people living in communities such as Franz Josef and on South Island infrastructure. Alpine Fault quake expected NZASE article 2019 Scientists estimate a 30 percent likelihood in the next 50 years of a magnitude 8 or higher (M8+) earth-quake along 400km of the Alpine Fault, a strength about three times greater than the 7.8 Kaikoura quake in 2016. Earthquakes along the fault, and the associated earth movements, have formed the Southern Alps. During the past five years, visitors have been taken to what is probably the best-known exposure of the fault, where mylonite rocks from the Pacific Plate are being thrust up over gravels on the Australian Plate. The result is a major earthquake along the Alpine fault. Large faults within the Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic forces, with the largest forming the boundaries between the plates, such as subduction zones or transform faults. The fault runs northeast from the northern side of the entrance to Milford Sound, along the western side of the Southern Alps for about 800 kilometres before morphing into the Marlborough fault system. "Unfortunately, the GeoNet station coverage is also very poor in this area, so there could be significant location errors with respect to the quake's location. There is no way of predicting exactly when an earthquake will happen. "However, we don't know if the earthquake will be magnitude 8, as the last earthquake was prehistoric. Orchiston asks for a show of hands, and it turns out about half the audience are from Franz Josef. Earthquakes along the fault, and the associated earth movements, have formed the Southern Alps. 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