Widespread remagnetizations and a new view of Neogene tectonic rotations within the Australia‐Pacific plate boundary zone, New Zealand

Abstract

Large, clockwise, vertical axis tectonic rotations of the Hikurangi margin, East Coast, New Zealand, have been inferred over both geological and contemporary timescales, from paleomagnetic and geodetic data, respectively. Previous interpretations of paleomagnetic data have laterally divided the margin into independently rotating domains; this is not a feature of the short‐term velocity field, and it is also difficult to reconcile with the large‐scale boundary forces driving the rotation. New paleomagnetic results, rigorously constrained by field tests, demonstrate that late diagenetic growth of the iron sulfide greigite has remagnetized up to 65% of sampled localities on the Hikurangi margin. When these remagnetizations are accounted for, similar rates, magnitudes, and timings of tectonic rotation can be inferred for the entire Hikurangi margin south of the Raukumara Peninsula in the last 7–10 Ma. Numerous large (50–80°) declination anomalies from magnetizations acquired in the late Miocene require much greater rates of rotation (8–14° Ma−1) than the presently observed rate of 3–4° Ma−1, which is only likely to be characteristic of the tectonic regime established since 1–2 Ma. These new results are consistent with both long‐ and short‐term deformation on the Hikurangi margin being driven by realignment of the subducting Pacific plate, with collision of the Hikurangi Plateau in the late Miocene potentially being key to both the initiation of tectonic rotations and the widespread remagnetization of Neogene sediments. However, accommodating faster, more coherent rotation of the Hikurangi margin in Neogene reconstructions of the New Zealand plate boundary region, particularly in the late Miocene, remains a challenge.