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 researchers made the discovery by looking at geological maps together with studies of the direction of magnetisation in the rocks. A member of the audience asks about aftershocks. Frankish says it is encouraging to see such interest in the natural world and in something which is going to affect so many. GNS Science earthquake geologists studying layers in the trench across the Alpine Fault at Springs Junction. 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.". Geologically, this is a high probability. Journal o/Geology and Geophysics Vol. Horizontal movement of the Alpine Fault is about 30m per 1,000 years — very fast by global standards. This fault system consists of many different smaller parts. In nearby Whataroa, Elisabeth Frankish​ is opening up the Alpine Fault Tours shop. Alpine topography in Norway is largely fault-controlled. No other community has such a vested interest in this slumbering monster, which does a bad job of hiding directly below the tourist mecca's main street, its petrol station, its police station and motels. Nehmen Sie an unseren Veranstaltungen teil There are no volcanoes because those are created from convergent plate boundary subduction. But the point of this image is to tell you we are very late on in the seismic cycle of the Alpine Fault.". Instead, residents can think more about preparedness and other possible scenarios. Sunday morning's magnitude 5.5 earthquake close to Big Bay in northern Fiordland generated a frisson of excitement among scientists and quake watchers, particularly after early reports from GeoNet that it appeared to have been centred on the Alpine Fault. Spüren Sie das Alpine Erlebnis. The Pacific Plate is upthrust on the left, with the Australian Plate on the right of the scarp. 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 idea occurred to him only about six months ago, Lamb said. The lack of moderate or large-magnitude earthquakes on the Alpine fault since reliable record keeping started means that the seismic potential of the Alpine fault must be inferred from indirect observations and theoretical considerations. 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. It’s the "on-land" boundary of the Pacific and Australian Plates. It is the line along which the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates are being pushed together. His advantage was that coming from the UK he wasn't wedded to a particular way of thinking about it. The surface rupture in Kaikōura was around 180km of fault – in this Alpine Fault event, we're talking about at least twice that length.". Alpine Fault. contemporaneous with Alpine Fault movement Huntly N. C. Cutten a a Geology Department, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand Published online: 09 Feb 2012. The overall movement follows a dextral strike-slip movement, which can be reconstructed by close observation of plutons in the area. You only need to look at the slips on the range front around Whataroa and Harihari from storms earlier this year to get a sense of what an Alpine Fault quake will do to unstable slopes and rivers, he says. From space it looks like a straight line but in reality it is made up of a number of slightly curvy connecting strands, some of which are classified "active" and others as historic. "Surface rupture will cause significant damage to buildings. Other articles where Ridge-ridge transform fault is discussed: submarine fracture zone: …plates and is called a ridge–ridge transform fault. At this point it splits into a set of smaller faults known as the Marlborough Fault System. It suggests that when the Alpine Fault moves, it most likely moves in large jumps of several metres and that this occurs in big earthquakes. "The current seismicity of the Alpine Fault is very low, but our aftershock modelling suggests that huge amounts of earthquakes will occur on the fault in the weeks, months and more after a major earthquake. >.< That resulted in about 250km of movement along the Alpine Fault but in the opposite direction to the way the fault is moving today. 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. The Alpine Fault. The new theory about the Alpine Fault was a major shift in thinking and the researchers had needed to provide convincing arguments to get it published. An ihr ereignen sich häufig Erdbeben, und die Bewegungen an der Verwerfung sind der Grund für die Entstehung der … You do a lot of testing. (File photo). 52. assistant with the Geological Survey in 1934, he studied geology. 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." The extent of the movement was worked out by researchers from Victoria University and GNS Science, with the findings published in the American Geophysical Union journal G-Cubed. 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? GNS Science principal scientist Dr Kelvin Berryman doubts last Sunday's quake was on the Alpine Fault and says there are several small faults just west of it. We know far better the characteristics of the fault, and its likely behaviour when it does rupture. "So I could talk about other things of interest too, like the multi-hazard cascades.". The full extent of the movement was masked because the rocks first moved 250km in one direction, then went back the other way – retracing the first 250km and adding a further 450km. 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. It is the line along which the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates are being pushed together. 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. Approximate rupture dates are 1717AD, 1620 AD, 1450 AD, and 1100 AD. The Alpine Fault Magnitude 8 collaboration is a three-year partnership of the South Island's six emergency management groups and features scientists from universities and Crown research institutes as well as emergency services personnel, iwi members and health-authority workers. A wet winter's evening in Franz Josef village, taken from the top of the Alpine Fault scarp. A commonly held view is that the orocline originated as a gigantic drag fold with Alpine Fault movement. 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. About a third say they are in the tourism business. With the same length as the Great Lakes Tectonic Zone, the Alpine Fault can be found at New Zealand’s South Island. The PSZ has accommodated most of the Alpine Fault’s strike-slip movement in the past, and will do so again in the future. This is a classic exposure of the Alpine Fault. READ MORE: * Big Bay quake on Sunday largest along Alpine Fault since 2001 * Videos show devastating impact across South Island if Alpine Fault ruptures * Questions over future of West Coast's SH6 if Alpine Fault quake hits * New study says Alpine Fault quake interval shorter than thought: GNS Science * Scientists examine Alpine Fault for signs of stress following earthquake. Source: GNS Science . "Any event so close to the fault is worthy of closer consideration. University of Otago earthquake scientist Professor Mark Stirling says the quake "may have been" on the fault. The result is a major earthquake along the Alpine fault. There is now a 27 per cent chance of that earthquake occurring in the next 50 years. Residents were unsuccessful in their efforts to invite the scientists to an informal meeting to share their thoughts on the Alpine Fault. "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. 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 also created the South Alps. 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 could well be that the event is further on in time. You have to go through an enormous amount of information to look at what other people have discovered. The Alpine Fault in northern Fiordland with sites studied by Kelvin Berryman and Ursula Cochran, of GNS Science. Close to 80 people and their wet-weather gear fill the theatre, less than 100m from the lump in the road that looks like a whale lurking just below the surface. (1979): 535-53 Rappahannock Group: Late Cenozoic sedimentation and tectonics contemporaneous with Alpine Fault movement Tonight it's Franz Josef's turn. The Alpine Fault. Langridge shows an image of a stopwatch with "1717" – for the most recent quake – at the 0-second mark at the top. Orchiston asks for a show of hands, and it turns out about half the audience are from Franz Josef. 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. The Deep Fault Drilling Project site at Gaunt Creek near Whataroa, directly on the Alpine Fault. The place which will be split apart by titanic forces when the Alpine Fault can't take the pressure anymore. The business owners, Vickie and Gray Eatwell, realised the potential for the venture when giving permission to scientists to cross their land en route to the Gaunt Creek site. This burgeoning interest in the inevitable quake is good news for those communicating its dangers. Other faults in central and southern parts of the South Island had played only a small role in the movement of the tectonic plates. An hour and a half later, the meeting winds up. This fault has ruptured approximately four times in the past 900 years, each time producing an earthquake of about magnitude 8. That is 250km more than previously thought. Langridge says if the quake is of magnitude 8.0 or higher, "it would have to have some magnitude 7 aftershocks". He doesn't want to confine himself to the fault and instead talks about "multi-hazard cascades", using the November 2016 Kaikōura earthquake as the example. It’s part of the sliding plate boundary. The movement of … 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. As these two plates move against each other enormous pressure builds up which must eventually be released through earth movement. The lack of moderate or large-magnitude earthquakes on the Alpine fault since reliable record keeping started means that the seismic potential of the Alpine fault must be inferred from indirect observations and theoretical considerations. The Alpine Fault scarp crosses the main street of Franz Josef directly under the petrol station. It forms a transform boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. 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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 Alpine Fault is the boundary between the Pacific crustal plate and the Australian plate. Earthquakes along the fault, and the associated earth movements, have formed the Southern Alps. Alpine Fault Tour's Elisabeth Frankish explains how the fault will rupture in the expected magnitude 8+ earthquake. 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. "It's not impossible to get through. That was an average speed of about 3cm a year. N.Z. It had been thought movement along the Alpine Fault was getting faster. Folding in late Quaternary sediments indicates active tilting of sediments at up to 0.4°/ka and variations in local uplift/subsidence rates of up to 4 mm/yr. Recent research (published … The Alpine Fault. Langridge – who has spent years digging and exploring trenches across the Alpine Fault at various sites along the West Coast – takes up the cudgels. The Alpine Fault also created the South Alps. Dr Caroline Orchiston explains the Alpine Fault and the damage the earthquake will have. 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 Alpine Fault has moved much more than previously thought, and more than any other known fault on land in the world, new research shows. 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. Our scientific understanding concerning the next large earthquake on the Alpine Fault, New Zealand. "I don't think anybody in their wildest dreams would have thought that displacements on the fault could be so large, and also change direction so dramatically through time," Associate Professor Dr Simon Lamb, from Victoria's School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, said. Most of the movement along the fault is horizontal (sideways), but there is also a vertical component. New research has found that the fault line may be the world's fastest-moving, having shifted around 700km in 25 million years. The result is a major earthquake along the Alpine fault. 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. 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. READ MORE: * Alpine Fault spreads across South Island, researchers say * When, not if: Alpine fault could cause 8 metres of movement * Scientists digging into new part of South Island's Alpine Fault. Willkommen auf der offiziellen Website von Alpine Cars. The Alpine Fault, which runs up the spine of the South Island, has ruptured five times in the past 1100 years - producing an earthquake of between magnitude 7 and 8 each time. The Alpine Fault. Hier erhalten Sie Informationen zur Nachrüstung von Navigationssystemen in folgenden Fahrzeugen Audi A4, A5 und Q5, Mercedes ML+GL (164), Sprinter 906, Vito/Viano (639) … "I'll think of my children first, and pray.". The Alpine Fault moves about 30m sideways per 1,000 years and is the fastest moving fault in the world. 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. Each time it breaks in an earthquake, it has also moved upwards. The Fault Core surrounds the PSZ with up to 30 metres of mixed gouge and the green clay-rich mash geologists call ultra-cataclasite. Big Bay in northern Southland with Lake McKerrow on the right. On the other hand there have been a number of Asked what will it mean for the business, she says it will have a significant impact like for anything else on the Coast. 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. Here, the main part of South Island is being thrust over the Australian Plate on a bearing of about 250 degrees. The watch's second hand is now within 10 seconds of the same mark. It's a rainy Tuesday evening in June with an early dusk made even earlier by the thick, wet, looming West Coast bush. This causes seismic waves to travel fastest parallel to these features, a phenomenon known as anisotropy. The Pacific Plate is upthrust on the left, with the Australian Plate on the right of the scarp. This is a classic exposure of the Alpine Fault. This set of faults, which includes the Wairau Fault, the Ho… This is it: Franz Josef. The idea was exciting but it was followed by a large amount of work. There are no volcanoes because those are created from convergent plate boundary subduction. "It will be interesting to see what the reception is. Movement occurs during very large earthquakes approximately every 300 years, with the last one happening 300 years ago in 1717AD. Movement on the Alpine Fault. 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 fault runs hundreds of kilometres up the spine of the South Island, from Fiordland along the western edge of the Southern Alps. About 25 million years ago a new plate boundary formed and the Pacific Plate and Australian Plate started moving relative to each other "in a big way". 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." The Alpine Fault ruptures in a massive earthquake every 300 years, on average, and the last big one was in 1717. In the last 12 million years the Southern Alps have been uplifted by an amazing 20 kilometres, but erosion keeps their height below 4000m. In summer there can be 10 or more tours a week; at this time of the year, maybe one or two. The Alpine Fault is a major plate boundary, where the moving Pacific and Australian plates collide and scrape past each other. Sie ist eine Transformstörung und bildet die Grenze zwischen der Pazifischen Platte und der Indo-Australischen Platte. Have scientists discussed what clues might tip them off to an impending major Alpine Fault quake? Scientists and engineers drilled into the fault several years ago and are still analysing what they found. 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. Compared with the expected magnitude 8-plus quake, the magnitude 5.5 was "in the noise" and less likely to signal something than perhaps a magnitude 6.5 might have, he says. A zone of uncertainty is shown in association with the mapping of the main rupture trace. "But we can't rule out that it was on the Alpine Fault. But months down the track, it will be interesting to see how the earthquake has changed the look of the fault at Gaunt Creek. 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. They move at a relative rate of about 45mm per year. Amid the pelting rain, there's a steady stream of people making their way to the Alpine Theatre for a presentation by AF8's science lead, Dr Caroline Orchiston, of the University of Otago, and Dr Rob Langridge, a senior earthquake scientist at GNS Science. Active from upper-Miocene to Recent times, it separates the volcanic Cabo de Gata terrain to the SE (accumulated over 18–6 Ma BP) from the tract of uplifted Alpine metamorphic basement blocks and post-orogenic basins that comprise the Betic Cordilleras lying to the NW. 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