c) Very little stress builds up along the plates. Collections. What a Normal Fault Looks Like. Elsevier. Earthquakes along the fault, and the associated earth movements, have formed the Southern Alps. 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). a) There is little or no movement of rocks. Normal Faults. Introduction. 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 transform fault is simply a strike-slip fault as the plates move, the crust is fractured and broken. 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. A transform boundary forms between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. 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. b) convergent. The Alpine Fault is located on the South Island of New Zealand. The Alpine Fault, which runs for about 600km up the spine of the South Island, is one of the world’s major geological features. The earthquakes form this pattern occur where the Pacific Plate is being subducted under the Australian Plate. It runs as a single structure for over 500 km. plate boundaries under the North and South Islands representing the North Island subduction zone and the South Island Alpine Fault. PO Box 56 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. Normal faults are the result of extension when tectonic plates move away from each other. English:Map of the Marlborough Fault System, the set of dextral strike-slip faults that accommodates the switch from the Alpine Fault to the Kermadec Trench along the plate boundary through New Zealand. Once you know what type a fault is, you can predict what can happen there during an earthquake. 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). This horizontal movement causes The area of volcanic activity is referred to as the Taupo Volcanic Zone (see map above). Base is a screenshot from NASAWorldWind, from the free … The Alpine Fault runs for over 800km up the spine of the South Island. New Zealand lies at the edge of both the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates. 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. Geodetic measurements (Beavan et al., 1999) and offset glacial deposits (Fig. 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. Type. The Alpine Fault is a geological right-lateral strike-slip fault. The Alpine Fault cuts through New Zealand. d) Most faults occur in middle of plates. 1. a) divergent. Transform Plate Boundaries are locations where two plates slide past one another. Date 2009. The Alpine Fault is the dominant structure defining the Australian-Pacific plate boundary in the South Island of New Zealand. 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. Teachers / Educators: Create FREE classroom games with your questions like the ones on this site. 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. The southern part of Zealandia, which is to the east of this boundary, is the plate's largest block of continental crust. The most famous example of this is the San Andreas Fault Zone of western North America. 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 is called a strike slip or transform fault. © Department of Geology It forms a transform boundary, so yes. New Zealand, Tel +64 3 479 7519 Understanding the behavior of plate boundary faults and the recurrence of major earthquakes along these faults is critical for understand-ing seismic hazards. 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. There is some uplift along it, and that has led to the development of the Southern Alps in the south island of New Zealand. The San Andreas connects a divergent boundary in the Gulf of California with the Cascadia subduction zone. 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. 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 San Andreas connects a divergent boundary in the Gulf of California with the Cascadia subduction zone. The rocks at the Alpine Fault are under shear stress since the bodies of rock slip horizontally past each other. This means that the fault neither creates nor destroys the lithosphere. Contains online school games for kids. 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. T The Southern Alps have been uplifted on the fault over the last 12 million years in a series of earthquakes. Which type of plate boundary is responsible for producing most of the earthquakes in these two belts? 8.2a). 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. This fault has ruptured four times in the past 900 years, each time producing an earthquake of about magnitude 8. The Alpine Fault occurs at a transform boundary. 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. Motion on the Alpine fault is not completely strike-slip. The type of plate boundary at the Alpine Fault is a transform boundary. Journal Article. At a transform boundary, two tectonic plates slide past each other. The fracture region that makes up a transform plate boundary is known as the transform fault. b) Large amounts of stress builds up as plates move. Like all plate boundaries, the movement of crust along transform and strike-slip faults creates earthquakes. The Alpine Fault runs for over 600km up the spine of Te Waipounamu, the South Island, along the western side of the Southern Alps. Deep earthquakes under North Island form a well defined band (seismic zone) running northeast from Marlborough through White Island. Normal faults, or extensional faults, are a type of dip-slip fault. Dunedin 9054 The Southern Alps have been formed over millennia by upthrust from successive earthquakes on the Alpine Fault. In the plot above the area of the circles correlates with the area percentage of samples occupied by the grain size. Fax +64 3 479 7527 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. They move in a series in a small rapid motions each of which is accompanied by one or more earthquakes. The Alpine Fault crosses the South Island between the Puysegur subduction zone in the south and the Hikurangi subduction zone in the north (Fig. To the northeast of New Zealand, and underneath North Island, the Pacific Plate is moving towards, and being subducted below the Australian Plate. What plate boundary must exist at Alpine Fault? 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