Geological evidence for past large earthquakes and tsunamis along the Hikurangi subduction margin, New Zealand

Clark, Kate; Howarth, Jamie; Litchfield, Nicola J.; Cochran, Ursula; Turnbull, J. C.; Dowling, Lisa; Howell, Andrew; Berryman, Kelvin; Wolfe, Franklin D.

doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2019.03.004

Cited by 81 publications

(160 citation statements)

References 187 publications

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“…Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth from historical records of earthquakes along the Valdivia segment (Lomnitz, 2004). Similar alternations of full and partial ruptures have also been inferred along, for example, the Nankai Trough (Garrett et al, 2016) and Japan Trench (Satake, 2015) as well as the Hikurangi Margin in New Zealand (Clark et al, 2019). Cascading ruptures combine several adjacent smaller partial ruptures along the entire length of the segment within a relatively short timeframe (up to years-decades).…”

Section: 1029/2020jb019405mentioning

confidence: 58%

Seismo‐Turbidites in Aysén Fjord (Southern Chile) Reveal a Complex Pattern of Rupture Modes Along the 1960 Megathrust Earthquake Segment

et al. 2020

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Grainsize analysis and end-member modeling of a long sediment core from Aysén Fjord (southern Chile) allows to identify over 25 seismo-turbidites in the last 9,000 years. Considering the shaking intensities required to trigger these turbidites (V½-VI½), the majority can be related to megathrust earthquakes. Multiple studies in south-central Chile have aimed at finding traces of giant, tsunamigenic megathrust earthquakes leading to the current 5,500-year-long paleoseismological record of the Valdivia segment. However, none of these cover the southern third of the segment. Aysén Fjord allows to fill this data gap and presents the first, crucial paleoseismic data to demonstrate that the 1960 event was not unique for the Valdivia segment, yielding a recurrence rate of 321 ± 116 years in the last two millennia. Moreover, the oldest identified events in Aysén Fjord date back to 9,000 cal years BP and, thus, also extend the regional paleoseismological record in time. We infer a large temporal variability in rupture modes, with successions of full-segment ruptures alternating with partial and cascading ruptures. The latter seems to significantly postpone the occurrence of another full rupture when consecutively occurring in different parts of the segment. Additionally, one outstanding period of seismic quiescence-during which no megathrust earthquake evidence has been found at any paleoseismic site-occurred after a full rupture in AD~745 that presents an unusual uplift/subsidence pattern. Such variability makes it highly speculative to anticipate the rupture mode of the next megathrust earthquake along the Valdivia segment.

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Section: 1029/2020jb019405mentioning

confidence: 58%

Seismo‐Turbidites in Aysén Fjord (Southern Chile) Reveal a Complex Pattern of Rupture Modes Along the 1960 Megathrust Earthquake Segment

et al. 2020

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“…Similarly, the age range of the penultimate Big Lagoon subsidence event BL2 overlaps with events A4, HS4, GB5, EK3 on Alpine and Hope faults, as well as event CC2 on the Wairarapa fault during possible-sequence S5, which is the only sequence that could represent a wall-to-wall rupture of the entire Al-Hp-JKN-Wr system. Clark et al, [2015;2019] noted the temporal overlap between the penultimate event on the Wairarapa fault (CC2) and the subsidence event recorded at Big Lagoon, and suggest that either the BL2 subsidence event was due to rupture that involved both the megathrust and the Wairarapa fault (as is postulated to have happened in the 1855 event of the Wairarapa fault [Little et al, 2009]), or a situation where the Wairarapa and megathrust faults ruptured separately but in temporally closely spaced events. These observations suggest that, at least sometimes, the megathrust fault may rupture together with, or within a short time of, brief sequences of events on the Al-Hp-JKN-Wr upper plate fault system.…”

Section: Plate Boundary System-level Rupture Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although this study focuses on the paleoearthquake behavior of the fast-slipping strikeslip and oblique-slip faults of the Al-Hp-JKN-Wr system, the presence of the Hikurangi megathrust fault beneath these upper plate faults in northeastern South Island and southern North invites comparison with the paleoearthquake record inferred from off-fault studies of potentially co-seismic subsidence events in the area [Clark et al, 2015[Clark et al, , 2019. The most proximal subsidence site to the upper-plate faults analyzed for this study is the Big Lagoon site ~35 km northwest of the Kekerengu-Needles fault system [Clark et al, 2015] ("BL" on Figure 1, "Big Lagoon" on Figure 7).…”

Section: Plate Boundary System-level Rupture Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

A 2000 Yr Paleoearthquake Record along the Conway Segment of the Hope Fault: Implications for Patterns of Earthquake Occurrence in Northern South Island and Southern North Island, New Zealand

Hatem

Dolan

Zinke

et al. 2019

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America

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Paleoseismic trenches excavated at two sites reveal ages of late Holocene earthquakes along the Conway segment of the Hope fault, the fastest-slipping fault within the Marlborough fault system in northern South Island, New Zealand. At the Green Burn East (GBE) site, a fault-perpendicular trench exposed gravel colluvial wedges, fissure fills, and upward fault terminations associated with five paleo-surface ruptures. Radiocarbon age constraints indicate that these five earthquakes occurred after 36 B.C.E., with the four most recent surface ruptures occurring during a relatively brief period (550 yr) between about 1290 C.E. and the beginning of the historical earthquake record about 1840 C.E. Additional trenches at the Green Burn West (GBW) site 1.4 km west of GBE reveal four likely coseismically generated landslides that occurred at approximately the same times as the four most recent GBE paleoearthquakes, independently overlapping with age ranges of events GB1, GB2, and GB3 from GBE. Combining age constraints from both trench sites indicates that the most recent event (GB1) occurred between 1731 and 1840 C.E., the penultimate event GB2 occurred between 1657 and 1797 C.E., GB3 occurred between 1495 and 1611 C.E., GB4 occurred between 1290 and 1420 C.E., and GB5 occurred between 36 B.C.E. and 1275 C.E. These new data facilitate comparisons with similar paleoearthquake records from other faults within the Alpine–Hope–Jordan–Kekerengu–Needles–Wairarapa (Al-Hp-JKN-Wr) fault system of throughgoing, fast-slip-rate (≥10 mm/yr) reverse-dextral faults that accommodate a majority of Pacific–Australia relative plate boundary motion. These comparisons indicate that combinations of the faults of the Al-Hp-JKN-Wr system may commonly rupture within relatively brief, ≤100-year-long sequences, but that full “wall-to-wall” rupture sequences involving all faults in the system are rare over the span of our paleoearthquake data. Rather, the data suggest that the Al-Hp-JKN-Wr system may commonly rupture in subsequences that do not involve the entire system, and potentially, at least sometimes, in isolated events.

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“…Seismicity at the Hikurangi Margin is distributed throughout the sedimentary upper plate and oceanic lower plate, with tsunamigenic earthquakes occurring on the plate interface (Clark et al, 2019;Shaddox & Schwartz, 2019;Todd et al, 2018). The volume hosting slow slip likely encompasses the plate interface and shallow earthquake hypocenters, extending from near the trench to 15-to 20-km depth (Wallace et al, 2016), possibly hosted in heterogeneous lithologies characterized on the incoming plate (Barnes et al, 2020;Wallace et al, 2019).…”

Section: 1029/2019tc005965mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mixed Brittle and Viscous Strain Localization in Pelagic Sediments Seaward of the Hikurangi Margin, New Zealand

et al. 2020

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Calcareous‐pelagic input sediments are present at several subduction zones and deform differently to their siliciclastic counterparts. We investigate deformation in calcareous‐pelagic sediments drilled ∼20 km seaward of the Hikurangi megathrust toe at Site U1520 during International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expeditions 372 and 375. Clusters of normal faults and subhorizontal stylolites in the sediments indicate both brittle faulting and viscous pressure solution operated at <850 m below sea floor. Stylolite frequency and vertical shortening estimated using stylolite mass loss, porosity change, and distribution increase with carbonate content. We then use U1520 borehole data to constrain a P‐T‐t history for the sediments and apply an experimentally derived pressure solution model to compare with strains calculated from stylolites. Modeled strains fail to replicate stylolite‐hosted strain distribution or magnitude, but comparison shows porosity, composition, and grain‐scale effects in diffusivity and mass transfer pathway width likely exert a strong influence on pressure solution localization and strain rate. Stylolite and fault clusters concentrate clay in these sediments, creating weak volumes of clay within carbonates, that may localize slip where the plate interface intersects the carbonates at <5‐km depth. Plate interface slip character and rheology will be influenced by the deformation of intermixed phyllosilicates and calcite, occurring by variably stable frictional slip and pressure solution of calcite. Pressure solution of calcite is therefore important at the shallow plate interface, waning at the base of the slow‐slipping zone because calcite solubility is low at temperatures >150°C where frictional (possibly seismic) slip likely predominates.

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Geological evidence for past large earthquakes and tsunamis along the Hikurangi subduction margin, New Zealand

Cited by 81 publications

References 187 publications

Seismo‐Turbidites in Aysén Fjord (Southern Chile) Reveal a Complex Pattern of Rupture Modes Along the 1960 Megathrust Earthquake Segment

Seismo‐Turbidites in Aysén Fjord (Southern Chile) Reveal a Complex Pattern of Rupture Modes Along the 1960 Megathrust Earthquake Segment

A 2000 Yr Paleoearthquake Record along the Conway Segment of the Hope Fault: Implications for Patterns of Earthquake Occurrence in Northern South Island and Southern North Island, New Zealand

Mixed Brittle and Viscous Strain Localization in Pelagic Sediments Seaward of the Hikurangi Margin, New Zealand

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