Alpine Fault Zone Research Articles

Electrical Properties and Anisotropy of Schists and Fault Rocks from New Zealand’s Southern Alps under Confining Pressure

Magnetotelluric models spanning the Pacific–Australian Plate boundary in New Zealand’s South Island indicate a localized zone of low electrical resistivity that is spatially coincident with the ductile mid-crustal part of the Alpine Fault Zone (AFZ). We explored the source of this anomaly by measuring the electrical properties of samples collected from surface outcrops approaching the AFZ that have accommodated a gradient of systematic strain and deformation conditions. We investigated the effects of tectonite fabric, fluid saturated pore/fracture networks and surface conductivity on the bulk electrical response and the anisotropy of resistivity measured under increasing confining pressures up to 200 MPa. We find that porosity and resistivity increase while porosity and the change in anisotropy of resistivity with confining pressure (δ (ρ‖/ρ⊥)/δ (peff)) decreases approaching the AFZ, indicating the electrical response is controlled by pore fluid conductivity and modified during progressive metamorphism. Conversely, Alpine mylonites exhibit relatively low resistivities at low porosities, and lower δ (ρ‖/ρ⊥)/δ (peff) than the schists. These findings indicate a transition in both the porosity distribution and electrical charge transport processes in rocks that have experienced progressive grain size reduction and mixing of phases during development of mylonitic fabrics due to creep shear strain within the AFZ.

3D Active Source Seismic Imaging of the Alpine Fault Zone and the Whataroa Glacial Valley in New Zealand

AbstractThe Alpine Fault zone in New Zealand marks a major transpressional plate boundary that is late in its typical earthquake cycle. Understanding the subsurface structures is crucial to understand the tectonic processes taking place. A unique seismic survey including 2D lines, a 3D array, and borehole recordings, has been performed in the Whataroa Valley and provides new insights into the Alpine Fault zone down to ∼2 km depth at the location of the Deep Fault Drilling Project (DFDP)‐2 drill site. Seismic images are obtained by focusing prestack depth migration approaches. Despite the challenging conditions for seismic imaging within a sediment filled glacial valley and steeply dipping valley flanks, several structures related to the valley itself as well as the tectonic fault system are imaged. A set of several reflectors dipping 40°–56° to the southeast are identified in a ∼600 m wide zone that is interpreted to be the minimum extent of the damage zone. Different approaches image one distinct reflector dipping at ∼40°, which is interpreted to be the main Alpine Fault reflector located only ∼100 m beneath the maximum drilled depth of the DFDP‐2B borehole. At shallower depths (z < 0.5 km), additional reflectors are identified as fault segments with generally steeper dips up to 56°. Additionally, a glacially over‐deepened trough with nearly horizontally layered sediments and a major fault (z < 0.5 km) are identified 0.5–1 km south of the DFDP‐2B borehole. Thus, a complex structural environment is seismically imaged and shows the complexity of the Alpine Fault at Whataroa.

Micro- and nano-porosity of the active Alpine Fault zone, New Zealand

Abstract. Porosity reduction in rocks from a fault core can cause elevated pore fluid pressures and consequently influence the recurrence time of earthquakes. We investigated the porosity distribution in the New Zealand's Alpine Fault core in samples recovered during the first phase of the Deep Fault Drilling Project (DFDP-1B) by using two-dimensional nanoscale and three-dimensional microscale imaging. Synchrotron X-ray microtomography-derived analyses of open pore spaces show total microscale porosities in the range of 0.1 %–0.24 %. These pores have mainly non-spherical, elongated, flat shapes and show subtle bipolar orientation. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy reveal the samples' microstructural organization, where nanoscale pores ornament grain boundaries of the gouge material, especially clay minerals. Our data imply that (i) the porosity of the fault core is very small and not connected; (ii) the distribution of clay minerals controls the shape and orientation of the associated pores; (iii) porosity was reduced due to pressure solution processes; and (iv) mineral precipitation in fluid-filled pores can affect the mechanical behavior of the Alpine Fault by decreasing the already critically low total porosity of the fault core, causing elevated pore fluid pressures and/or introducing weak mineral phases, and thus lowering the overall fault frictional strength. We conclude that the current state of very low porosity in the Alpine Fault core is likely to play a key role in the initiation of the next fault rupture.

Seismic Anisotropy and Its Impact on Imaging the Shallow Alpine Fault: An Experimental and Modeling Perspective

AbstractThe transpressional Alpine Fault in New Zealand has created a thick shear zone with associated highly anisotropic rocks. Low seismic velocity zones and high seismic reflectivity are recorded in the Alpine Fault Zone, but no study has explored the underlying physical rock parameters of the shallow crust that control these observations. Protomylonites are the volumetrically dominant lithology of the fault zone. Here we combine experimental measurements of P‐wave speeds with numerical models of elastic wave anisotropy of protomylonite samples to explore how the fault zone can be seismically imaged. Numerical models that account for the porosity‐free real samples' fabric elastic tensors from electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) are calculated by MTEX and a finite element model (FEM), while microfractures are modeled with differential effective medium (DEM) theory. At effective pressures representative of the Alpine Fault brittle zone, experimental wave speeds are lower than those predicted by MTEX/FEM. A possible DEM model suggests that a combination of random and aligned microfractures with aspect ratios increasing with pressure can explain the experimental wave speeds for pressures <70 MPa. Such microporosity in the form of foliation‐ and mica basal plane‐parallel microfractures and grain boundaries is validated with synchrotron X‐ray microtomography and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. Finally, by modeling anisotropy of seismic reflection coefficients with angle of incidence, we demonstrate that the high reflectivity and low‐velocity zone (LVZ) observed at the Alpine Fault can only be explained if this microporosity is accounted for throughout the brittle fault zone, even at depths of 7–10 km.

Fault zone architecture of a large plate-bounding strike-slip fault: a case study from the Alpine Fault, New Zealand

Abstract. New Zealand's Alpine Fault is a large, plate-bounding strike-slip fault, which ruptures in large (Mw>8) earthquakes. We conducted field and laboratory analyses of fault rocks to assess its fault zone architecture. Results reveal that the Alpine Fault Zone has a complex geometry, comprising an anastomosing network of multiple slip planes that have accommodated different amounts of displacement. This contrasts with the previous perception of the Alpine Fault Zone, which assumes a single principal slip zone accommodated all displacement. This interpretation is supported by results of drilling projects and geophysical investigations. Furthermore, observations presented here show that the young, largely unconsolidated sediments that constitute the footwall at shallow depths have a significant influence on fault gouge rheological properties and structure.

Effects of temperature on the frictional behavior of material from the Alpine Fault Zone, New Zealand

Temperature is widely believed to act as a primary control on fault rheology, and therefore on the distribution of seismicity along plate boundary faults. However, there are few detailed measurements of the frictional strength and stability of natural fault gouges at elevated temperatures. Here, we report on a suite of shearing experiments designed to investigate the frictional behavior of fault rocks sampled from depths of 111.5–142.9 m along the Alpine Fault in New Zealand obtained by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) Deep Fault Drilling Project (DFDP). We tested five samples from the DFDP-1B pilot hole: two hanging wall chloritic cataclasites, two footwall granitic cataclasites, and a fault gouge from the principal slip zone (PSZ-1). Each sample was sheared at a range of temperatures from 23 to 500 °C and at an effective normal stress of 80 MPa. The wall rock cataclasites exhibit an increase in the friction coefficient (μ) with temperature, from μ = 0.45–0.64 at 23 °C to μ = 0.87 at 500 °C. The PSZ-1 gouge exhibits lower friction coefficient values than the wall rock at temperatures ≤180 °C (μ = 0.35–0.46 vs 0.45–0.65), but comparable values (μ = 0.87–0.90) at 500 °C. The variation in frictional strength is accompanied by a transition from velocity-strengthening to velocity-weakening behavior at temperatures ≥180 °C for all materials. Extrapolation of the experimentally defined rheological critical stiffness of the fault material and the estimated in situ stiffness of the surrounding crust suggests upper and lower stability boundaries at ~1.8–2.5 km and ~8.5–8.8 km depth, respectively. The upper stability boundary is also consistent with the observed depth-frequency distribution of earthquakes.

The aeromagnetic expression of New Zealand’s Alpine Fault: regional displacement and entrainment of igneous rock

ABSTRACTThe Alpine Fault is very well delineated by recent high-resolution aeromagnetic data sets over much of its length in New Zealand’s South Island. Aeromagnetic data acquired over parts of the West Coast, Tasman and Marlborough regions for the New Zealand Government reveal different types of total magnetic intensity anomalies associated with the fault that can be characterised as truncated, step, ridge, trough and broad anomalies. Fault-terminated Permian ultramafic rocks, Late Cretaceous basalt and some Early Cretaceous intrusions are attributed to the more prominent truncated anomalies. The pre-eminent step anomaly is associated with relatively magnetic Alpine Schist juxtaposed against variable but generally less magnetic Western Province rocks. Strongly positive ridge anomalies occurring in the Alpine Fault zone are associated with Mesozoic mafic metavolcanic and ultramafic rocks. A trough anomaly associated with the Alpine Fault occurs in the southernmost survey and may reflect some hydrothermal demagnetisation. Broad, low-amplitude anomalies underlying the hanging wall are attributed in one instance to the extension of the magnetic Hohonu Range granitoids and dikes extending southeast in the footwall and in other places as magnetic schist rocks in the hanging wall. The apparent great-circle displacement of the Alpine Fault based on offset of magnetic anomalies associated with the Dun Mountain Ultramafics Group rocks is c. 461 km, in close agreement with the more precise 459 km inferred from geological map offset.

Near-surface clay authigenesis in exhumed fault rock of the Alpine Fault Zone (New Zealand); O-H-Ar isotopic, XRD and chemical analysis of illite and chlorite

Exhumed fault rock of the central Alpine Fault Zone (South Island, New Zealand) shows extensive clay mineralization, and it has been the focus of recent research that aims to describe the evolution and frictional behavior of the fault. Using Quantitative X-ray powder diffraction, 40Ar/39Ar geochronology, hydrogen isotope (δD) geochemistry, and electron microbeam analysis, we constrain the thermal and fluid conditions of deformation that produced two predominant clay phases ubiquitous to the exposed fault damage zone, illite and chlorite. Illite polytype analysis indicates that most end-member illite and chlorite material formed in equilibrium with meteoric fluid (δD = −55 to −75‰), but two locations preserve a metamorphic origin of chlorite (δD = −36 to −45‰). Chlorite chemical geothermometry constrains crystal growth to T = 210–296 °C. Isotopic analysis also constrains illite growth to T < 100 °C, consistent with the mineralogy, with Ar ages <0.5 Ma. High geothermal gradients in the study area promoted widespread, near-surface mineralization, and limited the window of clay authigenesis in the Alpine Fault Zone to <5 km for chlorite and <2 km for illite. This implies a significant contrast between fault rock exposed at the surface and that at depth, and informs discussions about fault strength, clays and frictional behavior.

Textural changes of graphitic carbon by tectonic and hydrothermal processes in an active plate boundary fault zone, Alpine Fault, New Zealand

Abstract Graphitization in fault zones is associated both with fault weakening and orogenic gold mineralization. We examine processes of graphitic carbon emplacement and deformation in the active Alpine Fault Zone, New Zealand by analysing samples obtained from Deep Fault Drilling Project (DFDP) boreholes. Optical and scanning electron microscopy reveal a microtextural record of graphite mobilization as a function of temperature and ductile then brittle shear strain. Raman spectroscopy allowed interpretation of the degree of graphite crystallinity, which reflects both thermal and mechanical processes. In the amphibolite-facies Alpine Schist, highly crystalline graphite, indicating peak metamorphic temperatures up to 640°C, occurs mainly on grain boundaries within quartzo-feldspathic domains. The subsequent mylonitization process resulted in the reworking of graphite under lower temperature conditions (500–600°C), resulting in clustered (in protomylonites) and foliation-aligned graphite (in mylonites). In cataclasites, derived from the mylonitized schists, graphite is most abundant (&lt;50% as opposed to &lt;10% elsewhere), and has two different habits: inherited mylonitic graphite and less mature patches of potentially hydrothermal graphitic carbon. Tectonic–hydrothermal fluid flow was probably important in graphite deposition throughout the examined rock sequences. The increasing abundance of graphite towards the fault zone core may be a significant source of strain localization, allowing fault weakening.

Advanced seismic imaging techniques characterize the Alpine Fault at Whataroa (New Zealand)

AbstractThe plate‐bounding Alpine Fault in New Zealand is an 850 km long transpressive continental fault zone that is late in its earthquake cycle. We have acquired and processed reflection seismic data to image the subsurface around the main drill site of the Deep Fault Drilling Project (DFDP‐2). The resulting velocity models and seismic images of the upper 5 km show complex subsurface structures around the Alpine Fault zone. The most prominent feature is a strong reflector at depths of 1.5–2.2 km with an apparent dip of 48° to the southeast below the DFDP‐2 borehole, which we assume to be the main trace of the Alpine Fault. Above the main reflector, parallel reflectors suggest the presence of a ∼600 m wide damage zone. Additionally, subparallel reflectors are imaged that we interpret as secondary branches of the main fault zone. Conjugate faults imaged by the data show the complexity of the subsurface. The derived P wave velocity model reveals a 300–600 m thick sedimentary layer with velocities of ∼2.3 km/s above a schist basement with velocities of 4.5–5.5 km/s. A low‐velocity layer can be observed within the basement at 0.8–2 km depth. A small‐scale low‐velocity anomaly appears at the top of the basement that can be correlated to the fault zone. The results provide a reliable basis for a seismic characterization of the DFDP‐2 drill site that can be used for further structural and geological investigations of the architecture of the Alpine Fault in this area.

Transregional zones of concentrated deformation: Structure, evolution, and comparative geodynamics

The comparative tectonic characterization of transregional linear structures (zones of concentrated deformations) is given for the Pieniny Klippen Belt, the Main Mongolian Lineament, and the transregional Alpine Fault Zone. They represent significant geodynamic elements of the Earth’s crust, which separate large crustal segments and reflect their interaction in time and space. The main features of the structure, evolution, and geodynamics inherent to zones of concentrated deformations are described. It is shown that the similarity of their outlines, morphology, internal structure, and kinematic features is combined with a clearly distinct structural position, set of rock associations, formation mechanism, and their role in the origin of mobile belts.

The link between strength of lattice preferred orientation, second phase content and grain boundary migration: A case study from the Alpine Fault zone, New Zealand

We analyse the microstructure and quartz LPOs of 36 layers of varying composition from a several-meter thick sequence of amphibolite-facies metacherts and related mica-garnet-plagioclase-quartz bearing schists from the central Southern Alps in the mylonite zone related to the Alpine Fault. Quartz contents vary from ∼10 to 100% and all of the LPO fabric skeletons are similar, featuring an asymmetric single girdle of [c]-axes inclined ∼30° away from the ZY plane. LPO strength is typically low at quartz contents <70% (M Index of ∼0.05) whereas it may be very high for nearly pure quartz rocks (M Index of up to 4.0). We attribute this change to a sparseness of interphase boundaries in the more quartzose rocks, a reduction in grain-boundary pinning, and a corresponding efficiency of grain boundary migration during dynamic recrystallization. The transition corresponds to a Zener parameter of approximately 700. In layers poor in quartz and rich in mica, the quartz grain size was kept small, and phase-boundary density, high. This may have promoted grain-size sensitive creep and dislocation glide in mica. Dislocation creep in the interspersed quartz grains was correspondingly reduced, and weaker quartz LPOs were produced. In highly quartzose layers, quartz grain boundaries experienced little drag or pinning from impurity phases and were able to migrate quickly into higher strain-energy grains. Preferential consumption of poorly oriented grains strengthened quartz LPOs, geometrically softened the dislocation creep process in these quartzose layers, and contributed to grain coarsening. The lack of evidence for instabilities in the thinly layered (<1 mm, quartz-rich vs. mica-rich) mylonite implies that a combination of deformation mechanisms, grain-size sensitive flow and dislocation creep, in the layers were able to accommodate a nearly homogeneous deformation between the different composition layers.

A phenomenological numerical approach for investigating grain size evolution in ductiley deforming rocks

The sizes of recrystallised grains in exhumed ductile shear zones are often used to infer conditions of deformation (i.e. stress, strain rate and temperature). Here we present a simple numerical method of calculating the dynamic evolution of grain size during ductile deformation. Our phenomenological method is based on the fact that the dynamic competition between grain growth and recrystallisation will drive grains towards a steady-state size. At each time increment, grain growth and reduction contributions are calculated, with magnitudes which depend on the difference between the current grain size and a desired steady-state grain size. In our models we use a recrystallised grain size piezometer to calculate the steady-state grain size for a given stress. Our numerical routine is incorporated into the SULEC finite element package, allowing us to explore spatial and temporal changes in grain size.As a test, we compare model results to measured grain sizes in quartz layers thinned and recrystallised around rigid garnet porphyroclasts under simple shear dominated deformation in the Alpine Fault Zone of New Zealand. Numerical models are able to replicate observed grain size variations, with boundary conditions consistent with those constrained for the central Alpine Fault Zone.

Using microstructures and TitaniQ thermobarometry of quartz sheared around garnet porphyroclasts to evaluate microstructural evolution and constrain an Alpine Fault Zone geotherm

Interpretations of deformation processes within ductile shear zones are often based on the characterisation of microstructures preserved in exhumed rocks. However, exhumed microstructures provide only a snapshot of the closing stages of deformation and we need ways of understanding how microstructures change through time and at what rate this occurs. To address this problem, we study optical microstructures and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) data from samples of quartz layers deflected around garnet porphyroclasts (which generate local stress and strain rate perturbations) during mylonitic deformation in the Alpine Fault Zone of New Zealand.During shearing around rigid garnet porphyroclasts, quartz undergoes grain size reduction in response to locally increased stresses, while c-axes reveal increasing components of rhomb <a> and prism <a> slip, reflecting a local increase in shear strain and strain rate. TitaniQ thermobarometry and quartz microstructures suggest a rather narrow range of recorded quartz deformation temperatures around 450–500 °C, which we propose reflects the cessation of grain boundary migration driven deformation. Given that temperatures well above the brittle–ductile transition for quartz (∼350 °C) are preserved, we anticipate that rapid cooling and exhumation must have occurred from the 500 °C isotherm. Ultimately, we propose a modified geotherm for the central Alpine Fault Zone hanging wall, which raises the 500 °C isotherm to 11 km depth, near the brittle–ductile transition. Our updated Alpine Fault Zone geotherm implies a hotter and weaker middle to lower crust than previously proposed.

A 2300-Year Paleoearthquake Record of the Southern Alpine Fault and Fiordland Subduction Zone, New Zealand, Based on Stacked Turbidites

Turbidites from three sedimentary basins data, and probably the A.D. 1826 Fiordland earthquake and the well‐dated A.D. 1717 Alpine fault earthquake. The recurrence intervals are shorter than recently published recurrence data from the Alpine fault on land, reflecting mixed fault‐source earthquake records and potentially increased Alpine fault segmentation offshore. Online Material: Details of the laboratory methods and analytical techniques applied to sedimentrary cores, photos of seafloor substrates and fan core, OxCal codes and results, and sediment transport analysis. [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif

Significance of brittle deformation in the footwall of the Alpine Fault, New Zealand: Smithy Creek Fault zone

The Smithy Creek Fault represents a rare exposure of a brittle fault zone within Australian Plate rocks that constitute the footwall of the Alpine Fault zone in Westland, New Zealand. Outcrop mapping and paleostress analysis of the Smithy Creek Fault were conducted to characterize deformation and mineralization in the footwall of the nearby Alpine Fault, and the timing of these processes relative to the modern tectonic regime. While unfavorably oriented, the dextral oblique Smithy Creek thrust has kinematics compatible with slip in the current stress regime and offsets a basement unconformity beneath Holocene glaciofluvial sediments. A greater than 100 m wide damage zone and more than 8 m wide, extensively fractured fault core are consistent with total displacement on the kilometer scale. Based on our observations we propose that an asymmetric damage zone containing quartz–carbonate–chlorite–epidote veins is focused in the footwall. Damage zone asymmetry likely resulted from the fact that the hanging wall was mostly deformed at greater depth than the footwall, rather than resulting from material contrasts across the fault plane. Kinematic inversions on mineralized fractures within the damage zone suggest veins formed in the current stress regime, from fluids comparable to those now circulating in the footwall. The Smithy Creek Fault zone is therefore a rare exhumed example of the modern footwall hydrothermal system, and of a structure actively accommodating footwall deformation near the Alpine Fault zone. Two significantly less mature, subvertical faults having narrow (20 cm or less) damage zones and similar orientations to nearby strike-slip segments of the Alpine Fault crosscut the mineralized zone at Smithy Creek. We envisage that hydrothermal mineralization strengthened the fault core, causing it to widen as later slip was partitioned into the (now) weaker surrounding damage zone. With progressive alteration, formation of favorably oriented faults became preferable to reactivation of the existing structure.

Grain boundary dissolution porosity in quartzofeldspathic ultramylonites: Implications for permeability enhancement and weakening of mid-crustal shear zones

Quartzofeldspathic ultramylonites from the Alpine Fault Zone, one of the world's major, active plate boundary-scale fault zones have quartz crystallographic preferred orientations (CPO) and abundant low-angle (<10° misorientation) boundaries, typical microstructures for dislocation creep-dominated deformation. Geometrically necessary dislocation density estimates indicate mean dislocation densities of ∼109 cm−2. A significant proportion (∼30%) of grain boundaries (>10° misorientation) are decorated by faceted pores, commonly with uniformly-oriented pyramidal shapes. Only grain boundaries with >10° misorientation angles in polymineralic aggregates are decorated by pores. Mean grain boundary pore densities are ∼5 × 108 cm−2. Grain boundary pores are dissolution pits generated during syn-deformational transient grain boundary permeability, nucleating on dislocation traces at dilatant grain boundary interfaces. They have not been removed by subsequent grain boundary closure or annealing. Pore decoration could have led to grain boundary pinning, triggering a switch in the dominant deformation mechanism to grain boundary sliding, which is supported by evidence of CPO destruction in matrix quartz. Pore-decorated grain boundaries have significantly reduced surface area available for adhesion and cohesion, which would reduce the tensile and shear strength of grain boundaries, and hence, the bulk rock. Grain boundary decoration also significantly decreased the mean distance between pores, potentially facilitating dynamic permeability. Consequently, these microstructures provide a new explanation for strain weakening and evidence of fluid flow along grain boundaries in mylonites at mid-crustal conditions.

How do lineations reflect the strain history of transpressive shear zones? The example of the active Alpine Fault zone, New Zealand

Lineations within mylonites exhumed in the hanging wall of New Zealand's active Alpine Fault zone have a complicated relationship to contemporary plate kinematics. The shear zone is triclinic and macroscopic object lineations are not usually parallel to the simple shear direction, despite high total simple shear strains (γ ≥ 150). This is mostly because the lineations are inherited from pre-mylonitic fabrics, and have not been rotated into parallelism with the mylonitic stretching direction (which pitches c. 44° in the fault plane). Furthermore, some lineations have been variably rotated depending on whether they are present in shear bands or microlithons, which accommodated bulk strains with different vorticities. Total strains required to obtain parallelism between the finite maximum principal stretching direction calculated from transpression models and these mylonitic lineations, are pure shear stretch, S1 ∼ 3.5; simple shear 11.7 < γ < 150. The observations and numerical models also show that linear features are not rotated much during simple shear because they initially lie within the shear plane, and that inherited fabric components may not be destroyed until very high simple shear strains have been attained.

Seismic risk scenario planning and sustainable tourism management: Christchurch and the Alpine Fault zone, South Island, New Zealand

This paper makes the case for natural disaster emergency planning to be incorporated into sustainable tourism strategies, using seismic risk scenario planning as a technique, and the Southern Alps of the South island of New Zealand as an example. The Alpine Fault is a 450-km-long geological structure running the length of the Southern Alps in New Zealand. Paleoseismic evidence suggests that a significant earthquake of magnitude (M) ∼ 7.8–8.0 is overdue. Coincident with this area of high seismic potential is a growing tourism industry, capitalising on the region's international reputation for nature-based tourism experiences. The scenario planning approach uses an isoseismal modelling methodology to describe a range of specific vulnerabilities in the tourism sector and highlight the physical outcomes and consequences for tourism-related infrastructure, transport, food supply, rescue, and survival likely to result from a future M8 earthquake on the Alpine Fault. Interviews with hazard management agencies investigated how tourism is considered in the context of current hazard management policies, and the urgent need to bring industry policies into partnership with other planning agencies and policies. Risk management is shown to be essential to address the triple bottom line of sustainable tourism management.

Diverse habitats of pseudotachylytes in the Alpine Fault Zone and relationships to current seismicity

Abstract Pseudotachylytes are ubiquitous within New Zealand's Alpine Fault Zone, occurring as: (i) thin fault veins parallel to existing hanging wall mylonitic foliation; (ii) thicker fault and injection veins around and within metabasite lenses in hanging wall fault rocks and on the footwall–hanging wall boundary; (iii) chaotic injected masses within footwall-derived, granitoid mylonites; and (iv) chaotic injected masses into cataclasites within the fault core. Overall, pseudotachylytes are not volumetrically dominant enough to have formed during all increments of earthquake slip on the Alpine Fault. We propose they were mostly generated during regular moderate magnitude events or during foreshock and aftershock sequences to larger earthquakes. The largest volume pseudotachylytes occur in footwall-derived mylonites (type (iii)). This may indicate that high-stress, anhydrous seismic slip is most common in the footwall. Most types (i), (ii) and (iii) pseudotachylytes formed at or near the base of the seismogenic zone, at temperatures up to 350 °C and at depths of 7–10 km or more. Ductilely overprinted pseudotachylytes represent the down-dip termination of large fault ruptures in a zone that would usually fail by aseismic creep. Type (iv) pseudotachylytes were formed at shallower depths (4–7 km) in a damage zone around the fault principal slip surface. Rare amygdules indicate that the fault zone locally contained free fluids. Supplementary material: Table of host, rock and pseudotachylyte major and minor oxide proportions is available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18490 .