What type of transform fault is Alpine Fault?

What type of transform fault is Alpine Fault?

The Alpine Fault is called a strike slip or transform 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.

Is the Alpine Fault oceanic or continental?

Here, unlike East Cape, it is the oceanic Australian Plate that is descending beneath the continental Pacific Plate. The movement of the plates at the Alpine Fault occurs in stops and starts. Major ruptures, noted as strong earthquakes, occurred in 1460, 1630 and the last was in 1717.

What kind of plate boundary is Alpine Fault?

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 forms a transform boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate.

Is the Alpine Fault a subduction zone?

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).

Why do transform faults occur near oceanic ridges?

Most transform faults are found along the mid-ocean ridges. The ridge forms because two plates are pulling apart from each other. As this happens, magma from below the crust wells up, hardens, and forms new oceanic crust. The red lines show the transform faults between areas of diverging, or spreading, crust.

Is Alpine a ridge trench 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. At this point, it splits into a set of smaller faults known as the Marlborough Fault System.

Is the Australian plate oceanic or continental?

The Australian plate is a continental plate and the Pacific plate is an oceanic plate. At this boundary, the Pacific plate is slowly moving under the Australian plate.

What happens when the Alpine Fault?

The rupture will produce one of the biggest earthquakes since European settlement of New Zealand, and it will have a major impact on the lives of many people. In between earthquakes, the Alpine Fault is locked. When the Alpine Fault next ruptures it is likely to produce an earthquake with a magnitude of around 8.

What are oceanic transform faults?

Oceanic transform faults are long-term stable features and are intrinsic elements of the spreading process (Gerya, 2010, 2012). They are also present in continental lithosphere, where they may connect segments of subduction zones or a spreading ridge and a collision zone (Gerya, 2016 and references therein).

Where are the transform faults?

Most transform faults are found in the ocean basin and connect offsets in the mid-ocean ridges. A smaller number connect mid-ocean ridges and subduction zones.

Is the Alpine Fault in New Zealand a transform boundary?

Transform Boundary – Alpine Fault, South Island, New Zealand 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. It forms a transform boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate.

Which is subducting plate is the Alpine Fault?

The Indo-Australian Plate is subducting towards the east south of the South Island and the Pacific Plate is subducting towards the West to the north. In the middle the Alpine Fault is a transform boundary and has both dextral (right-lateral) strike-slip movement and uplift on the southeastern side.

What are the characteristics of oceanic transform faults?

Oceanic Transform Faults. In between segments of the plates pulling away from each other are transform faults moving past each other. These faults can vary in length, but they always have a segment of the mid-ocean ridge fault at either end. Where the transform faults move past each other, no new crust is formed.

Where are the boundaries of a transform fault?

Transform Plate Boundaries are locations where two plates slide past one another. The fracture zone that forms a transform plate boundary is known as a transform fault. Most transform faults are found in the ocean basin and connect offsets in the mid-ocean ridges.