Project information
Project aim
This project focuses on the evolution of the Macquarie Ridge Complex, an active tectonic plate boundary between the
Pacific and Australian plates south of New Zealand. We will investigate the processes by which this boundary changed
from an active spreading center, forming new oceanic crust, to a major, strike slip transform plate boundary over the
last 40 million years. We will undertake fieldwork on Macquarie Island to provide ground truth for extensive marine
geophysical data from the surrounding seafloor. The combined data set will be used to track the changes and to answer
fundamental problems about plate boundary dynamics.
Related publications
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Macquarie Island's Finch-Langdon Fault Zone: A ridge-transform corner structure preserved along the pacific-Australian plate boundary Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 2000
(Ref: 9367)
Category 3: Abstract
Macquarie Island, located along the Australian-Pacific transform plate boundary~1200 km south of New Zealand, consists of uplifted oceanic crust that still lies within the ocean basin where it formed. A lower crustal and upper mantle section of sheeted dikes…