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50thKaikoura05 -1- Kaikoura 2005 CHARACTERISATION OF NEW ...

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Sibson, R.H., 1983. Continental fault structure and the<br />

shallow earthquake source. Journal of the Geological<br />

Society of London, 5, 741–767.<br />

Zoback, M.D., and Townend, J., 2001. Implications of<br />

hydrostatic pore pressures and high crustal strength<br />

for the deformation of intraplate lithosphere.<br />

Tectonophysics, 336, 19–30.<br />

POSTER<br />

THE EARLY MIOCENE PLATE BOUNDARY<br />

IN MARLBOROUGH, <strong>NEW</strong> ZEALAND:<br />

THRUST FAULTING AND REGIONAL<br />

CLOCKWISE VERTICAL-AXIS ROTATION<br />

D. B. Townsend 1 &T.A.Little 2<br />

1 GNS, PO Box 30368 Lower Hutt<br />

2 School of Earth Sciences, Victoria University, PO<br />

Box 600 Wellington<br />

(d.townsend*gns.cri.nz)<br />

Plate reconstructions for the Early Miocene suggest<br />

that the Pacific-Australia plate boundary trended<br />

NW-SE and consisted of an array of thrust faults<br />

striking parallel to the paleo-Hikurangi margin.<br />

Parts of that subduction complex are preserved<br />

onshore in the Raukumara Peninsula, Wairarapa<br />

and Marlborough, where it was pinned at its eastern<br />

end by the Chatham Rise. The plate boundary zone<br />

in Marlborough has experienced a complex<br />

structural history, culminating in the late Neogene<br />

development of the NE-striking, dextral strike-slip<br />

Marlborough Fault System (MFS).<br />

Inception of the Early Miocene plate boundary<br />

through New Zealand is recorded in Marlborough<br />

by development of the imbricate Flags Creek Fault<br />

System (FCFS) and coeval deposition of the<br />

(Otaian-Altonian) Great Marlborough<br />

Conglomerate. New structural mapping and<br />

analysis of folded thrust sheets in the FCFS has<br />

yielded a predominant in-situ SE vergence, which<br />

is strongly discordant to the inferred NW-SE strike<br />

and NE (seaward) vergence of the Early Miocene<br />

subduction complex.<br />

Five new paleomagnetic samples from around the<br />

arcuate FCFS coupled with existing paleomagnetic<br />

data from coastal Marlborough suggest that the<br />

entire area has undergone clockwise vertical-axis<br />

rotation of at least 100º during the Middle and early<br />

Late Miocene [Vickery and Lamb 1995; Little &<br />

Roberts 1997]. Late Miocene to Pliocene clockwise<br />

vertical-axis rotation of up to 44º has affected<br />

coastal Marlborough to the north of the FCFS<br />

[Roberts 1995; Little & Roberts 1997]. Late<br />

Pliocene to Quaternary dextral shear strain within<br />

~5 km of the active Kekerengu Fault has locally<br />

produced additional clockwise vertical-axis rotation<br />

(up to 45º) near Woodside Creek.<br />

Restoration of strike-slip on the MFS and of the<br />

above-described rotations realigns the Early<br />

Miocene FCFS back to its original NW-SE strike<br />

and NE- (seaward-) vergent configuration. The<br />

proto-Clarence Fault (Flags Creek Fault) initiated<br />

as a NW-SE striking thrust within the Early<br />

Miocene subduction complex, and accrued >10 km<br />

of NE-vergent slip (with an additional 16 km of<br />

shortening within the FCFS) before being folded,<br />

strongly clockwise-rotated, and locally reactivated.<br />

Subsequently, oblique plate motion has allowed this<br />

and other faults in the MFS to remain active while<br />

transitioning from dip-slip to oblique- or strike-slip<br />

styles of deformation.<br />

Roberts, A. 1995: Tectonic rotation about the termination<br />

of a major strike-slip fault, Marlborough fault system,<br />

New Zealand. Geophysical Research Letters 22 (3),<br />

187-190<br />

Vickery, S., Lamb, S. 1995: Large tectonic rotations<br />

since the Early Miocene in a convergent plate<br />

boundary zone, South Island, New Zealand. Earth and<br />

Planetary Science Letters 136, 44-59.<br />

Little, T., Roberts, A. 1997: Distribution of Neogene to<br />

present-day vertical-axis rotations, Pacific-Australia<br />

plate boundary zone, South Island, New Zealand.<br />

Journal of Geophysical Research 102 (B9), 20447-<br />

20468<br />

POSTER<br />

FABRIC TRANSITIONS IN THE ALPINE<br />

FAULT MYLONITES: VARIATION IN THE<br />

TEMPERATURE <strong>OF</strong> THE BRITTLE-<br />

PLASTIC TRANSITION DUE TO CHANGES<br />

IN STRAIN RATE<br />

V.G. Toy 1 ,R.J.Norris 1 &D.J.Prior 2<br />

1 Geology Department, University of Otago, PO<br />

Box 56, Dunedin.<br />

2 Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences,<br />

University of Liverpool, L69 3GP, U.K.<br />

(virginia*geology.co.nz)<br />

The Alpine Fault is the major structure within the<br />

Australian–Pacific plate boundary and<br />

accommodates c. 25 mm/yr displacement. Due to<br />

the oblique convergence across it, mylonites<br />

formed by ductile shear at depth are exhumed in the<br />

hanging wall immediately east of the present fault<br />

trace. They grade from ultramylonite close to the<br />

fault to protomylonite adjacent to the Alpine Schist<br />

protolith c. 1 km to the east.<br />

In order to gain further information about the<br />

distribution of strain and deformation conditions<br />

within the hanging-wall, Alpine Schist-derived<br />

Alpine fault mylonites, we have collected quartz<br />

crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO) data<br />

from mylonite samples along two transects<br />

perpendicular to the Alpine fault. Analyses were<br />

50 th <strong>Kaikoura</strong>05 -88- <strong>Kaikoura</strong> <strong>2005</strong>

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