2007 - 2015
Funder: Foundation for Research, Science and Technology
Contact: Rupert Sutherland
This programme aims to understand the broad relevance of tectonic motion for a wide range of economic, social and environmental outcomes.
Programme Objectives
New Zealand originates from interactions between the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates as they push against and under each other. Auckland is currently moving at about five centimetres per year relative to Christchurch. Over time intervals of years and decades, this motion distorts survey networks, causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, results in subsidence or uplift in coastal regions, and makes drilling for petroleum more difficult. Over intervals of many thousands of years, continental crust is created and pushed upwards, and the land area that we live on has emerged from the ocean. Over intervals of millions of years, the same processes form geological structures that are of economic importance to New Zealand, such as petroleum basins, mineral deposits, and geothermal fields.
Understanding this tectonic motion leads to a wide range of economic, social and environmental outcomes. End-users of our research include energy companies, regional authorities, Land Information New Zealand, GeoNet; applied researchers (especially in environmental, petroleum, and minerals research programmes); and a wide range of international scientists.
More information:
9 Sept, 2009