New Zealand lies at the edge of both the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates. Transform plate boundaries occur where two lithospheric plate slide past each other horizontally along a single or a group of deep nearly vertical steep fault planes. Understanding the behavior of plate boundary faults and the recurrence of major earthquakes along these faults is critical for understand-ing seismic hazards. The transform fault is simply a strike-slip fault as the plates move, the crust is fractured and broken. The Alpine Fault is called a strike slip or transform fault. Another example of a transform boundary on land is the Alpine Fault of New Zealand. To play games using the questions from above, visit ReviewGameZone.com and enter game ID number: 23189 in the upper right hand corner or, Play Games with the Questions above at ReviewGameZone.com. b) Large amounts of stress builds up as plates move. Normal Faults. The Alpine Fault is a major plate boundary structure, which accommodates up to 50-80% of the total plate boundary motion across the South Island of New Zealand. Which type of plate boundary is responsible for producing most of the earthquakes in these two belts? The type of plate boundary at the Alpine Fault is a transform boundary. It forms a transform boundary, so yes. At a transform boundary, two tectonic plates slide past each other. It occurs between the Pacific Plate... See full answer below. The Alpine Fault is a geological right-lateral strike-slip fault. Collections. The Alpine Fault is a geological fault, known as a right-lateral strike-slip fault, that runs almost the entire length of New Zealand's South Island. Geodetic measurements (Beavan et al., 1999) and offset glacial deposits (Fig. Which way is the Philippine plate moving? Students can play FREE, fun and interactive games to help prepare for exams, tests, and quizzes. Active crustal deformation is generally concentrated within plate boundary zones. By the end of this activity, students should be able to: understand the movement of plate boundaries in different parts of New Zealand. The Alpine Fault crosses the South Island between the Puysegur subduction zone in the south and the Hikurangi subduction zone in the north (Fig. What plate boundary must exist at Alpine Fault? This pattern of deeper earthquakes towards the northwest of North Island reflects the northwest dip (or slope) of the boundary between the two plates (the Benioff zone). @article{Langridge2010RevisedSR, title={Revised slip rates for the Alpine fault at Inchbonnie: Implications for plate boundary kinematics of South Island, New Zealand}, author={R. Langridge and P. Villamor and R. Basili and P. Almond and J. There is some uplift along it, and that has led to the development of the Southern Alps in the south island of New Zealand. c) Very little stress builds up along the plates. d) The part of the Indo-Australian plate that holds Australia is moving away from the part of the plate that carries India. Boundary Type (C=Convergent, D=Divergent, or T=Transform) Year Observed (5, 10, or 20 million years) Geologic Events Observed (earthquakes, faults, ocean formation, mountains, volcanoes, island chains, seafloor spreading) Location One Himalayas 5 Event 1-20 Event 2-Location Two East Africa 5 Event 1-10 Event 2-20 Event 3-Location Three San Andreas fault zone 5 Event 1-10 Event 2-20 Event … Along the Alpine Fault the plates are not only moving past each other, they are also moving towards each other. It’s the "on-land" boundary of the Pacific and Australian Plates. The earthquakes form this pattern occur where the Pacific Plate is being subducted under the Australian Plate. The Alpine Fault runs for over 600km up the spine of Te Waipounamu, the South Island, along the western side of the Southern Alps. The San Andreas connects a divergent boundary in the Gulf of California with the Cascadia subduction zone. The area of volcanic activity is referred to as the Taupo Volcanic Zone (see map above). Like all plate boundaries, the movement of crust along transform and strike-slip faults creates earthquakes. The Australian and Pacific Plates generally don't move smoothly past each other. The mountains are rising at 7 millimetres a year, but erosion wears them down at a similar rate. The subduction zone in the north is linked to the subduction zone in the south by a series of very large faults that run through Marlborough (Marlborough Fault System) and down the west coast of South Island (Alpine Fault). During the late Cenozoic, the fault increasingly became the locus of slip between the Australian and Pacific plates. c) transform. 8.2a). Deep earthquakes under North Island form a well defined band (seismic zone) running northeast from Marlborough through White Island. The Alpine Fault also ruptures, which leads to seismic activity as well as considerable horizontal movement, up to 30 m every 1000 years. Relative movement across the Marlborough Fault System is dextral or right-lateral. Contains online school games for kids. Normal faults are the result of extension when tectonic plates move away from each other. Transform Plate Boundaries - Transform Fault. Individual fault lines are usually narrower than their length or depth. Publisher. This molten rock rises to the surface through the thinned crust and is either erupted from volcanoes like Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngaruhoe or sits within the crust and heats it, and the water it contains, up causing geothermal activity around Taupo and Rotorua. This means that the fault neither creates nor destroys the lithosphere. 1. The Australian plate is sliding horizontally towards the north-east, at the same time as the Pacific plate is pushing up, forming the Southern Alps. The Alpine Fault runs for over 800km up the spine of the South Island. 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. To the south of New Zealand, and underneath Fiordland, the two plates are also moving toward each other but here the Australian Plate is being subducted under the Pacific Plate. The fracture region that makes up a transform plate boundary is known as the transform fault. Teachers and educators can turn online educational tests and quizzes into games directly from their browser to be used as review. Elsevier. The most famous example of this is the San Andreas Fault Zone of western North America. The Alpine Fault is the dominant structure defining the Australian-Pacific plate boundary in the South Island of New Zealand. Langridge said researchers in California and New Zealand have a long history of earthquake science collaboration and are learning from each other about the treatment of active faults and fault segmentation for seismic hazard models. The Alpine Fault is a geological fault that runs almost the entire length of New Zealand's South Island (c. 480 km) and forms the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. d) Most faults occur in middle of plates. The Alpine Fault is the dominant structure defining the Australian-Pacific plate boundary in the South Island of New Zealand. It forms the sharp line separating the snow-covered Southern Alps in the east from the low coastal plain bordering the Tasman Sea in the west. Another major strike-slip fault that cuts across land is the Alpine fault in New Zealand that cuts across the south island. Most earthquakes strike less than 50 miles (80 kilometers) below the Earth’s surface. A transform boundary forms between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. Journal Article. What a Normal Fault Looks Like. A smaller number of transform faults cut continental lithosphere. Motion on the Alpine fault is not completely strike-slip. Fax +64 3 479 7527 This compressional movement is causing the Southern Alps to be uplifted at a rate of approximately 7 millimetres per year forming a high elongate mountain range parallel to the Alpine Fault. Water released from the Pacific Plate deep under North Island combines with the hot rock of the Australian Plate at about 100km depth and causes a small amount of that rock to melt. Here, the main part of South Island is being thrust over the Australian Plate on a bearing of about 250 degrees. It forms a transform boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. Another example of a transform boundary on land is the Alpine Fault of New Zealand. a) There is little or no movement of rocks. Interested in finding out more about the Alpine Fault? Transform Plate Boundaries are locations where two plates slide past one another. The Alpine Fault occurs at a transform boundary. PO Box 56 At the Alpine Fault, the two plates are locked, but in a large earthquake they grind past and into each other, pushing up the Southern Alps. The faultline is estimated to move horizontally up to 10m at a time during an earthquake. Public domain Photo credit Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=67355. Introduction. The rocks at the Alpine Fault are under shear stress since the bodies of rock slip horizontally past each other. In the plot above the area of the circles correlates with the area percentage of samples occupied by the grain size. It runs as a single structure for over 500 km. This fault has ruptured four times in the past 900 years, each time producing an earthquake of about magnitude 8. At this location, two plates are sliding past each other slowly over time. New Zealand’s Alpine Fault is a seismically active, “crust-busting” plate boundary fault. Type. The southern part of Zealandia, which is to the east of this boundary, is the plate's largest block of continental crust. To the northeast of New Zealand, and underneath North Island, the Pacific Plate is moving towards, and being subducted below the Australian Plate. They occur when the hanging wall drops down and the footwall drops down. Teachers / Educators: Create FREE classroom games with your questions like the ones on this site. The Alpine Fault is sometimes compared with California's San Andreas Fault, being another fast-moving strike slip fault near a plate boundary. Strike-slip faults have walls that move sideways, not up or down. The Marlborough Fault System is a series of subparallel strike-slip faults which run northeast-southwest. Normal faults, or extensional faults, are a type of dip-slip fault. That is, the slip … Earthquakes along the fault, and the associated earth movements, have formed the Southern Alps. The Alpine Fault is located on the South Island of New Zealand. This horizontal movement causes I’ve analyzed quartz grain size data from ~250 rocks spanning 170 km of the fault. b) convergent. The Alpine Fault marks a transform boundary between the two plates, and further south the Indo-Australian Plate subducts under the Pacific Plate forming the Puysegur Trench. Email geology@otago.ac.nz, Structure, Environment, Reaction, Petrology, Geology along the Otago Central Rail Trail, http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=67355, Find the Otago Students’ Geological Society on. Although the New Zealand plate boundary is often described as simply two subduction zones linked by the transpressive Alpine Fault, in actuality the present is merely a snapshot view of an ongoing and complex evolution from convergence to subduction. The Southern Alps have been formed over millennia by upthrust from successive earthquakes on the Alpine Fault. The Alpine Fault, which runs for about 600km up the spine of the South Island, is one of the world’s major geological features. Date 2009. It was first suggested by John Tuzo Wilson, a Canadian geophysicist, in 1965. © Department of Geology They move in a series in a small rapid motions each of which is accompanied by one or more earthquakes. Dunedin 9054 Once you know what type a fault is, you can predict what can happen there during an earthquake. It runs as a single structure for over 500 km. Transform boundaries also form on larger scales on land like the San Andreas fault in Western North America and the Alpine fault in New Zealand. plate boundaries under the North and South Islands representing the North Island subduction zone and the South Island Alpine Fault. T The Southern Alps have been uplifted on the fault over the last 12 million years in a series of earthquakes. It forms the sharp line separating the snow-covered Southern Alps in the east from the low coastal plain bordering the Tasman Sea in the west. The Alpine Fault is considered to be a visible, “on-land” boundary of the two constituent plates, and also marks the transition from a transform to convergent boundary. New Zealand, Tel +64 3 479 7519 It’s the part of the active boundary between the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates where they intersect on land. Strike-Slip Faults. Conversely, in the southwest of South Island where the Australian Plate is being subducted below the Pacific Plate, the deeper earthquakes occur on the southeast edge of the seismic zone where the Benioff zone dips steeply to the southeast. click "search options" again to close the pull down or refresh the page, d) both convergent and divergent boundaries. Transform Fault Boundaries is the third type of plate boundaries in which the plates slide past with each other horizontally as shown in the figure 1 below. Different from the periodic recurrence of earthquakes on fast-slipping and geometrically simple strike-slip faults, e.g., the Alpine Fault in New Zealand , we infer aperiodic earthquake behavior on the slow-slipping and the geometrically complex sinistral boundary between the African and Arabian plates. As the Pacific Plate is subducted below North Island, the part of the Australian Plate that makes up the central North Island is stretched and has, over many millions of years, become thinner than normal crust. Base is a screenshot from NASAWorldWind, from the free … The San Andreas connects a divergent boundary in the Gulf of California with the Cascadia subduction zone. The Alpine Fault cuts through New Zealand. Shallow earthquakes tend to occur to the southeast of this seismic zone, while the deeper ones occur towards the northwest. a) divergent. 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