Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
    • Series home
    • Lyell Collection home
    • Geological Society home
  • Content
    • Online First
    • Current volume
    • All volumes
    • All collections
    • Supplementary publications
    • Open Access
  • Subscribe
    • GSL fellows
    • Institutions
    • Corporate
    • Other member types
  • Info
    • Authors
    • Librarians
    • Readers
    • Access for GSL Fellows
    • Access for other member types
    • Press office
    • Accessibility
    • Help
  • Alert sign up
    • eTOC alerts
    • Online First alerts
    • RSS feeds
    • Newsletters
    • GSL blog
  • Propose
  • Geological Society of London Publications
    • Engineering Geology Special Publications
    • Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis
    • Journal of Micropalaeontology
    • Journal of the Geological Society
    • Lyell Collection home
    • Memoirs
    • Petroleum Geology Conference Series
    • Petroleum Geoscience
    • Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society
    • Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology
    • Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society
    • Scottish Journal of Geology
    • Special Publications
    • Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society
    • Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow
    • Transactions of the Geological Society of London

User menu

  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Geological Society, London, Special Publications
  • Geological Society of London Publications
    • Engineering Geology Special Publications
    • Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis
    • Journal of Micropalaeontology
    • Journal of the Geological Society
    • Lyell Collection home
    • Memoirs
    • Petroleum Geology Conference Series
    • Petroleum Geoscience
    • Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society
    • Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology
    • Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society
    • Scottish Journal of Geology
    • Special Publications
    • Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society
    • Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow
    • Transactions of the Geological Society of London
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart
  • Follow gsl on Twitter
  • Visit gsl on Facebook
  • Visit gsl on Youtube
  • Visit gsl on Linkedin
Geological Society, London, Special Publications

Advanced search

  • Home
    • Series home
    • Lyell Collection home
    • Geological Society home
  • Content
    • Online First
    • Current volume
    • All volumes
    • All collections
    • Supplementary publications
    • Open Access
  • Subscribe
    • GSL fellows
    • Institutions
    • Corporate
    • Other member types
  • Info
    • Authors
    • Librarians
    • Readers
    • Access for GSL Fellows
    • Access for other member types
    • Press office
    • Accessibility
    • Help
  • Alert sign up
    • eTOC alerts
    • Online First alerts
    • RSS feeds
    • Newsletters
    • GSL blog
  • Propose

Terminations of large strike-slip faults: an alternative model from New Zealand

V. Mouslopoulou, A. Nicol, T. A. Little and J. J. Walsh
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 290, 387-415, 1 January 2007, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP290.15
V. Mouslopoulou
1School of Earth Sciences, PO Box 600, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand (e-mail: )
*Present address: Fault Analysis Group, Department of Geological Sciences, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland (e-mail: )
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: [email protected] [email protected]
A. Nicol
2GNS Science, PO Box 30368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
T. A. Little
1School of Earth Sciences, PO Box 600, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand (e-mail: )
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: [email protected]
J. J. Walsh
3Fault Analysis Group, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
PreviousNext
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

The 500-km-long strike-slip North Island Fault System (NIFS) intersects and terminates against the Taupo Rift. Both fault systems are active, with strike-slip displacement transferred into the rift without displacing normal faults along the rift margin. Data from displaced landforms, fault-trenching, gravity and seismic-reflection profiles, and aerial photograph analysis suggest that within 150 km of the northern termination of the NIFS, the main faults in the strike-slip fault system bend through 25°, splay into five principal strands and decrease their mean dip. These changes in fault geometry are accompanied by a gradual steepening of the pitch of the slip vectors, and by an anticlockwise swing (up to 50°) in the azimuth of slip on the faults in the NIFS. As a consequence of the bending of the strike-slip faults and the changes in their slip vectors, near their intersection, the slip vectors on the two component fault systems become subparallel to each other and to their mutual line of intersection. This subparallelism facilitates the transfer of displacement from one fault system to the other, accounting for a significant amount of the NE increase of extension along the rift, whilst maintaining the overall coherence of the strike-slip termination. Changes in the slip vectors of the strike-slip faults arise from the superimposition of rift-orthogonal differential extension outside the rift margin, resulting in differential motion of the footwall and hanging-wall blocks of each fault in the NIFS. The combination of rift-orthogonal heterogeneous extension (dip-slip) and strike-slip, results in a steepening of the pitch of the slip vectors on the terminating fault system. Slip vectors on each splay close to their terminations are, therefore, the sum of strike-slip and dip-slip components, with the total angle through which the pitch of the slip vectors steepens being dependent on the relative values of both these two component vectors. In circumstances where interaction of the velocity fields for the intersecting fault systems cannot resolve to a slip vector that is boundary-coherent, either rotation about vertical axes of the terminating fault relative to the through-going fault system may take place to accommodate the termination of the strike-slip fault system, or the rift may be offset by the strike-slip fault system rather than terminating into it. At the termination of the NIFS, an earlier phase of such rotations may have produced the 25° anticlockwise bend in fault strike and contributed up to about one-third of the anticlockwise deflection in slip azimuth. On the terminating strike-slip NIFS, therefore, rotational and non-rotational termination mechanisms have both played a role, but at different times in its evolution, as the thermal structure, the rheology and the thickness of the crust in the rift intersection region have changed.

  • © The Geological Society of London 2007
View Full Text

Please note that if you are logged into the Lyell Collection and attempt to access content that is outside of your subscription entitlement you will be presented with a new login screen. You have the option to pay to view this content if you choose. Please see the relevant links below for further assistance.

INDIVIDUALS

Log in using your username and password

– GSL fellows: log in with your Lyell username and password. (Please check your access entitlements at https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/fellowsaccess)
– Other users: log in with the username and password you created when you registered. Help for other users is at https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/lyellcollection_faqs
Forgot your username or password?

Purchase access

You may purchase access to this article for 24 hours and download the PDF within the access period. This will require you to create an account if you don't already have one. To download the PDF, click the 'Purchased Content' link in the receipt email.

LIBRARY USERS

Log in through your institution

You may be able to gain access using your login credentials for your institution. Contact your library if you do not have a username and password.
If your organization uses OpenAthens, you can log in using your OpenAthens username and password. To check if your institution is supported, please see this list. Contact your library for more details.
If you think you should have access, please contact your librarian or email [email protected]

LIBRARIANS

Administer your subscription.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions about the Lyell Collection publications website, please see the access help page or contact [email protected]

PreviousNext
Back to top

In this volume

Geological Society, London, Special Publications: 290 (1)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications
Volume 290
2007
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
  • Back Matter (PDF)
  • Front Matter (PDF)
Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation tools

Terminations of large strike-slip faults: an alternative model from New Zealand

V. Mouslopoulou, A. Nicol, T. A. Little and J. J. Walsh
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 290, 387-415, 1 January 2007, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP290.15
V. Mouslopoulou
1School of Earth Sciences, PO Box 600, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand (e-mail: )
*Present address: Fault Analysis Group, Department of Geological Sciences, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland (e-mail: )
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: [email protected] [email protected]
A. Nicol
2GNS Science, PO Box 30368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
T. A. Little
1School of Earth Sciences, PO Box 600, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand (e-mail: )
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: [email protected]
J. J. Walsh
3Fault Analysis Group, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Permissions
View PDF
Share

Terminations of large strike-slip faults: an alternative model from New Zealand

V. Mouslopoulou, A. Nicol, T. A. Little and J. J. Walsh
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 290, 387-415, 1 January 2007, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP290.15
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Email to

Thank you for sharing this Geological Society, London, Special Publications article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Terminations of large strike-slip faults: an alternative model from New Zealand
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Geological Society, London, Special Publications
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in Geological Society, London, Special Publications.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Print
Download PPT
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Tectonic setting and fault data
    • Northern termination of the NIFS
    • Fault termination
    • Discussion
    • Conclusions
    • Acknowledgments
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

Similar Articles

Cited By...

  • Most read
  • Most cited
Loading
  • The history of the European oil and gas industry (1600s–2000s)
  • Introduction to Himalayan tectonics: a modern synthesis
  • Himalayan earthquakes: a review of historical seismicity and early 21st century slip potential
  • New prospects on the cranial evolution of non-avialan paravian theropods based on geometric morphometrics
  • An introduction to forensic soil science and forensic geology: a synthesis
More...

Special Publications

  • About the series
  • Books Editorial Committee
  • Submit a book proposal
  • Author information
  • Supplementary Publications
  • Subscribe
  • Pay per view
  • Alerts & RSS
  • Copyright & Permissions
  • Activate Online Subscription
  • Feedback
  • Help

Lyell Collection

  • About the Lyell Collection
  • Lyell Collection homepage
  • Collections
  • Open Access Collection
  • Open Access Policy
  • Lyell Collection access help
  • Recommend to your Library
  • Lyell Collection Sponsors
  • MARC records
  • Digital preservation
  • Developing countries
  • Geofacets
  • Manage your account
  • Cookies

The Geological Society

  • About the Society
  • Join the Society
  • Benefits for Members
  • Online Bookshop
  • Publishing policies
  • Awards, Grants & Bursaries
  • Education & Careers
  • Events
  • Geoscientist Online
  • Library & Information Services
  • Policy & Media
  • Society blog
  • Contact the Society

Published by The Geological Society of London, registered charity number 210161

Print ISSN 
0305-8719
Online ISSN 
2041-4927

Copyright © 2022 Geological Society of London