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Multimillennial Incremental Slip Rate Variability of the Clarence Fault at the Tophouse Road Site, Marlborough Fault System, New Zealand
Author(s) -
Zinke Robert,
Dolan James F.,
Rhodes Edward J.,
Van Dissen Russ,
McGuire Christopher P.,
Hatem Alexandra E.,
Brown Nathan D.,
Langridge Robert M.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2018gl080688
Subject(s) - geology , sinistral and dextral , slip (aerodynamics) , landform , seismology , pleistocene , thermoluminescence dating , holocene , fault (geology) , geomorphology , paleontology , physics , thermodynamics
Incremental slip rates of the Clarence fault, a dextral fault in the Marlborough fault system of South Island, New Zealand, varied by a factor of 4–5 during Holocene–latest Pleistocene time, as revealed by geomorphic mapping and luminescence dating of faulted fluvial landforms at the Tophouse Road site. We used high‐resolution lidar microtopographic data and field surveys to map the fine‐scale geomorphology and precisely restore the offset features. We dated the offsets using a stratigraphically informed protocol for infrared stimulated luminescence dating. These data show that incremental slip rates varied from ~2.0 to 9.6 mm/year, averaged over multiple earthquakes and millennial timescales. Comparison to incremental slip rates of the nearby Awatere fault suggests that these faults may behave in coordinated (and anticorrelated) fashion. This study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that incremental slip rate variation spanning multiple earthquake cycles may be more common than previously recognized.