Strain Partitioning between structural domains in the forearc of the Hikurangi Subduction Zone, New Zealand

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Abstract
The Pacific plate obliquely converges with the Australian plate at latitude 39°50′S along the Hikurangi margin off the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. An extensive and youthful subaerially exposed forearc on the east coast of the North Island in the Hawke's Bay area provides the opportunity to document contemporaneous forearc deformation in this obliquely convergent margin setting. Geologic mapping and analysis of strain at both mesoscale and megascale indicates that strain is partitioning into domains of extension, contraction, and strike‐slip. The domains are elongate and trend parallel to the margin. Measurements of net shortening and transcurrent slip in the forearc show that the obliquely convergent motion is transferred across the plate interface. Deformation rates calculated for the past 1–2 m.y. for structures in all six forearc domains account for 50–70% of the margin‐parallel motion required by Pacific‐Australian plate convergence and about 6% of the plate motion perpendicular to the plate boundary. At the surface in the forearc, this obliquely convergent motion is manifest not by transpressional faults but rather by paired structural domains that consist of a strike‐slip fault zone and an accompanying contractional fault‐and‐fold zone on the trenchward side. There are two such transcurrent faulting‐and‐contraction couplets, one where the backstop daylights at the arcward edge of the forearc and another couplet trenchward of a relatively undisturbed forearc basin. The small amount of shortening, relative to strike‐slip, in the onshore part of the forearc suggests that shortening perpendicular to the plate boundary may be concentrated offshore and that most of the component of plate motion perpendicular to the plate boundary may be accommodated by slip along the subduction zone megathrust.