Structure and paleoearthquake records of active submarine faults, Cook Strait, New Zealand: Implications for fault interactions, stress loading, and seismic hazard

A new interpretation of active faulting in central Cook Strait, New Zealand, reveals tectonic structures associated with the spatial transition from subduction to continental transform faulting. Marine seismic reflection profiles and multibeam bathymetric data indicate that there are no throughgoing crustal faults connecting the North Island Dextral Fault Belt and the Marlborough Fault System in South Island. The major faults terminate offshore, associated with 5–20 km wide step‐overs and a change in regional fault strike. This structure implies that propagation of strike‐slip earthquake ruptures across the strait is not probable. Faulted sedimentary sequences in the Wairau Basin (Marlborough shelf), correlated to glacioeustatic sea level cycles, provide a stratigraphic framework for fault analysis. A high‐resolution study of the postglacial (