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The Kermadec–Tonga subduction zone is a convergent plate boundary that stretches from the North Island of New Zealand northward. The formation of the Kermadec and Tonga plates started about 4–5 million years ago. Today, the eastern boundary of the Tonga plate is one of the fastest subduction zones, with a rate up to 24 cm/year (9.4 in/year ...
The geology of New Zealand is noted for its volcanic activity, earthquakes and geothermal areas because of its position on the boundary of the Australian Plate and Pacific Plates. New Zealand is part of Zealandia , a microcontinent nearly half the size of Australia that broke away from the Gondwanan supercontinent about 83 million years ago. [ 1 ]
The Motagua Fault, which crosses through Guatemala, is a transform boundary between the southern edge of the North American plate and the northern edge of the Caribbean plate. New Zealand's Alpine Fault is another active transform boundary. The Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault which runs through the Jordan River Valley in the Middle East.
It is a result of the most linear, fastest converging, and seismically active subduction boundary on Earth, the Kermadec–Tonga subduction zone, and consequently has the highest density of submarine volcanoes. [1] The Tonga–Kermadec Ridge stretches more than 3,000 km (1,900 mi) north-northeast from New Zealand's North Island.
Map of the northern end of the Alpine Fault and Marlborough Fault System. The Pacific plate and Indo-Australian plate boundary forms the Macquarie Fault Zone in the Puysegur Trench off the southwestern corner of the South Island and comes onshore as the Alpine Fault just north of Milford Sound.
Where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of plate boundary (or fault): convergent, divergent, or transform. The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 10 cm annually. Faults tend to be geologically active, experiencing earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation.
A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. [1] It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subduction zone. [2] A transform fault is a special case of a strike-slip fault that also forms a plate boundary.
Map of Earth's principal plates (convergent boundaries shown as blue or mauve lines) The collision between the Eurasian plate and the Indian plate that is forming the Himalayas. [22] [23] The collision between the Australian plate and the Pacific plate that formed the Southern Alps in New Zealand