Deformed Neogene basins, active faulting and topography in Westland: Distributed crustal mobility west of the Alpine Fault transpressive plate boundary (South Island, New Zealand)

Abstract Tectonic activity in the South Island of New Zealand is dominated by the Alpine Fault component of the Australia–Pacific plate boundary. West of the Alpine Fault deformation is recorded by Paleogene–Neogene basins coeval with the evolution of the right-lateral/transpressive plate margin. Initial tectonic setting was controlled by N–S normal faults developed during Late Cretaceous and Eocene–early Miocene rifting. Following inception of the Alpine Fault (c. 25 Ma) reverse reactivation of the normal faults controlled tectonic segmentation that became apparent in the cover sequences at c. 22 Ma. Based on restored transects tied to stratigraphic sections, seismic lines and wells, we reconstruct the vertical mobility of the Top Basement Unconformity west of Alpine Fault. From c. 37–35 Ma to 22 Ma subsidence was controlled by extensional faulting. After 22 Ma the region was affected by differential subsidence, resulting from eastward crustal flexure towards the Alpine Fault boundary and/or components of transtension. Transition from subsidence to uplift started at c. 17 Ma within a belt of basement pop-ups, separated by subsiding basins localised in the common footwall of oppositely-dipping reverse faults. From 17 to 7–3 Ma reverse fault reactivation and uplift migrated to the WSW. Persistent reverse reactivation of the inherited faults in the present stress field is reflected by the close match between tectonic block segmentation and topography filtered at a wavelength of 25 km, i.e. at a scale comparable to crustal thickness in the region. However, topography filtered at wavelength of 75 km shows marked contrasts between the elevated Tasman Ranges region relative to regions to the south. Variations in thickness and rigidity of the Australian lithosphere possibly control N–S longitudinal changes, consistent with our estimates of increase in linear shortening from the Tasman Ranges to the regions located west of the Alpine Fault bend.