Hostname: page-component-68945f75b7-4zrgc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-05T22:26:16.887Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Coseismic Uplift of Holocene Marine Terraces in the Pakarae River Area, Eastern North Island, New Zealand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Yoko Ota
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Yokohama National University, 240, Yokohama, Japan
Alan G. Hull
Affiliation:
DSIR Geology and Geophysics, P.O. Box 30368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Kelvin R. Berryman
Affiliation:
DSIR Geology and Geophysics, P.O. Box 30368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

Abstract

Holocene marine terraces along 15 km of the northeastern coast of North Island record episodic tectonic uplift. A maximum of seven terraces are arranged in staircase fashion and lie about 20 km above the subduction interface between the Pacific and Australian plates. The highest (T1) corresponds with the maximum of the Holocene marine transgression about 6700 14C yr B.P. Younger terraces are marine abrasion platforms overlain by thin beach deposits. Radiocarbon ages of marine shells from beach deposits indicate that uplift above marine conditions occurred ca. 6700(T1), 5500(T2), 3900(T3), 2500(4), 1600(T5), 1000(T6), and slightly younger than 600(T7) yr B.P. Uplift probably occurred coseismically. The maximum late Holocene uplift rate in the study area is 8 mm/yr. Altitudinal distribution of terraces suggests deformation exists as a ca. 20-km elongate dome, broken at the southern end by the Pakarae fault, which trends across the dome. Rupture on this fault has accompanied the growth of the dome but is not responsible for it. Bathymetric profiling suggests that an active fault, parallel to and about 5 km offshore, is probably responsible for the episodic coastal uplift.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berryman, K.R. Late Quaternary Marine Terrase Distribution, Stratigraphy, and Deformation at Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand Ph.D.thesis 1988 Victoria University of Wellington Google Scholar
Berryman, K.R. Ota, Y. Hull, A.G. Holocene paleoseismicity in the fold and thrust belt at the Hikurangi subduction zone, eastern North Island, New Zealand Tectonophysics 163 1989 185 195 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cole, J.W. Lewis, K.B. Evolution of the Taupo-Hikurangi subduction system Tectonophysics 72 1981 1 21 Google Scholar
Gibb, J.G. A New Zealand regional eustatic curve and its application for determination of vertical tectonic movements Royal Society of New Zealand Bulletin 24 1986 377 395 Google Scholar
Hamilton, R.M. Seismlogical studies of the Gisborne earthquake sequence, 1966 Gisborne Earthquake New Zealand, March, 1966 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Bulletin 194 1969 7 23 Google Scholar
Hull, A.G. A late Holocene uplifted shore platform on the Kidnappers coast, North Island, New Zealand: Some implications for shore platform development processes and ulift mechanism Quaternary Research 29 1987 183 195 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, J.A. White, N.J. Garfunkel, Z. Anderson, H. Relations between normal-fault geometry, tilting and vertical motions in extensional terrains: An example from the southern Gulf of Suez Journal of Structural Geology 10 1988 155 170 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karig, D.E. Sharman, G.F. Subduction and accretion in trenches Geological Society of America Bulletin 86 1975 377 389 Google Scholar
Kingma, J.T. Sheet 9, Gisborne (1st ed.) Geologic Map of New Zealand, 1:250,000 1964 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Wellington Google Scholar
Kirk, R.M. Rates and forms of erosion on intertidal platforms at Kaikoura Peninsula, South Island, New Zealand New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics 20 1977 571 613 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowe, D.J. Revision of the age and stratigraphic relationships of Hinemaia Tephra and Whakatane Ash, North Island, New Zealand, using distal occurrences in organic deposits New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics 29 1986 61 73 Google Scholar
Marshall, P. Effects of earthquake on coastline near Napier, New Zealand New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology 16 1933 79 92 Google Scholar
Matsuda, T. Ota, Y. Ando, M. Yonekura, N. Fault mechanism and recurrence time of major earthquakes in southern Kanto district, Japan, as deduced from coastal terrace data Geological Society of America Bulletin 89 1978 1610 1618 Google Scholar
McFadgen, B.G. Late Holocene stratigraphy of coastal deposits between Auckland and Dunedin, New Zealand Journal of Royal Society of New Zealand 15 1985 27 65 Google Scholar
Miyauchi, T. Ota, Y. Hull, A.G. Holocene marine terraces and tectonic uplift in the Waimarama coastal plains, eastern North Island, New Zealand New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics 32 1989 437 442 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okada, A. Nagata, T. Land deformation of the neighbourhood of Muroto Point after the Nankaido great earthquake in 1946 Bulletin of Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo 31 1953 169 177 Google Scholar
Ota, Y. Marine terraces as reference surfaces in late Quaternary tectonic studies: Examples from the Pacific rim Royal Society of New Zealand Bulletin 24 1986 357 375 Google Scholar
Ota, Y. Holocene Coastal Tectonics of Eastern North Island, New Zealand. A Preliminary Report on Late Quaternary Seismo-tectonic Movements in the Circum Pacific Area 1987 Yokohama Google Scholar
Ota, Y. Berryman, K.R. Hull, A.G. Miyauchi, T. Iso, N. Age and height distribution of Holocene transgressive deposits in eastern North Island, New Zealand Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Palaoecology 68 1988 135 151 Google Scholar
Ota, Y. Hull, A. G. Iso, N. Ikeda, Y. Moriya, I., and Yoshikawa, T. (unpublished manuscript). “Holocene Marine Terraces on the Northeastern Coast of North Island, New Zealand, with Special Reference to Tectonic Deformation and Relative Sea Level Changes.Google Scholar
Ota, Y. Yoshikawa, T. Moriya, I. Ikeda, Y. Iso, N. Hull, A.G. Holocene marine terraces in the northeastern coast of North Island, New Zealand Abstracts of International Symposium on Coastal Evolution in the Holocene Tokyo, Japan 1983 109 112 Google Scholar
Pettinga, J. Upper Cenozoic structural history, coastal southern Hawke's Bay, New Zealand New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics 25 1982 149 192 Google Scholar
Plafker, G. Rubin, M. Uplift History and Earthquake Recurrence as Deduced from Marine Terraces on Middleton Island, Alaska Open-File Report 78-943 1978 687 721 USGS Google Scholar
Shimazaki, K. Nakata, T. Time-predictable recurrence model for large earthquakes Geophysical Research Letters 7 1980 279 282 Google Scholar
Smith, E.G.C. Stern, T. Reners, M. Subduction and back-arc activity at the Hikurangi convergent margin, New Zealand Pure and Applied Geophysics 129 1989 203 231 Google Scholar
Sykes, L.R. Great earthquakes of 1855 and 1931 in New Zealand: Evidence for seismic slip along downgoing plate boundary and implications for seismic potential of Cascadia Subduction Zone EOS 70 43 1989 1331 Google Scholar
Trenhaille, A.S. Layzell, M.G.J. Shore platform morphology and the tide duration factor Transactions of the British Institute of Geographers 6 1981 82 102 Google Scholar
Walcott, R.I. Geodetic strains and large earthquakes in the axial tectonic belt of the North Island, New Zealand Journal of Geophysical Research 83 1978 4419 4429 Google Scholar
Webb, T.H. Wesnousky, S.G. Helmberger, D.V. A body-wave analysis of the 1966 Gisborne, New Zealand, earthquake Tectonophysics 113 1985 271 282 Google Scholar
Wellman, H.W. Holocene of the North Island: A coastal reconnaissance Transaction of Royal Society of New Zealand 1–5 1962 29 99 Google Scholar
Wellman, H.W. Tilted marine beach ridges at Cape Turakirae, New Zealand Journal of Geoscience, Osaka City University 10 1967 123 129 Google Scholar
Yoshikawa, T. Ota, Y. Yonekura, N. Okada, A. Iso, N. Marine terraces and their tectonic deformation on the northeastern coast of the North Island, New Zealand Geographical Review of Japan 53 1980 235 262 [in Japanese with English Abstract] CrossRefGoogle Scholar