World Map › Active Faults › Alpine Fault
Active Fault
Alpine Fault
Strike-Slip Fault (Right-Lateral) · New Zealand
The Alpine Fault is a strike-slip fault, where the two blocks slide horizontally past each other, right-lateral (the opposite block moves to the right). Its mapped traces are about 740 km long in New Zealand. It marks the boundary between the Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate. Its slip rate is estimated between 5.5 and 31.4 mm per year depending on the section. Since 1900, 1 major earthquake has occurred within 30 km of its trace.
- Type
- Strike-Slip Fault
- Sense of Slip
- Right-Lateral
- Mapped Length
- ≈ 740 km
- Slip Rate
- 5.5 – 31.4 mm per year
- Countries
- New Zealand
- Plates
- Australian Plate, Pacific Plate
Major Earthquakes Within 30 km
Deadly or magnitude 7+ earthquakes recorded by NOAA, most recent first.
- 2003Dunedin, Invercargill, New Zealand · M 7.2
Sources: GEM Global Active Faults (Styron et Pagani, 2020), CC BY-SA 4.0, catalogue Litchfield_NZ_2013 · NOAA NCEI · Bird (2003), PB2002 · Wikidata