New Zealand Primary Site

Examples of outstanding research questions for the New Zealand primary site include:

• What are the geological, geochemical, and geophysical responses to subduction initiation and early arc evolution and how to they affect subduction zone formation?
• What controls the along-strike transition from a locked subduction interface (southern Hikurangi) to a largely creeping interface (northern Hikurangi)? What controls the spatial limits of the seismogenic zone and the location and character of slow slip events?
• How to Quaternary eustacy, structural deformation, and climate change influence sediment dispersal and sequence architecture in forearc basins?
• What are the magma transport pathways through the crust, and respective contributions of subducted sediments and crustal assimilation along- and across-strike of the arc?
• How do rifting and spreading, and the spatial and temporal variation of magmatism, relate to the nature of slab-derived fluid-to-melt and the rheology of the mantle wedge?

Further information about these topics, a summary of existing datasets and infrastructure investments in New Zealand, and critical research efforts for GeoPRISMS studies can be found in Section 2.4 of the GeoPRISMS Implementation Plan.

• Investigating subduction processes at the Hikurangi margin, New Zealand
• 2013 Planning Workshop for the New Zealand Primary Site
• Kermadec Arc – Havre Trough Planning Mini-Workshop
• Mini-Workshop for the South Island, New Zealand Primary Site coordination
• Workshop to cultivate and coordinate GeoPRISMS studies of the Hikurangi subduction margin

• HT-RESIST Hikurangi Trench Regional Electromagnetic Survey to Image the Subduction Thrust
• SISIE: South Island Subduction Initiation Experiment
• Assessing changes in the state of a magma storage system over caldera-forming eruption cycles, a case study at Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand
• Sizing up the Taniwha: Seismogenesis at Hikurangi Integrated Research Experiment (SHIRE)
• Hikurangi Ocean Bottom Investigation of Tremor and Slow Slip (HOBITSS) – Revealing the environment of shallow slow slip
• IODP tackles the Hikurangi Margin of New Zealand with two drilling expeditions to unlock the secrets of slow-slip events
• The NZ3D Experiment – Adding a new dimension for understanding slow slip events
• Volatile cycling through the Hikurangi forearc, New Zealand
• Probing the nature of the Hikurangi margin hydrogeologic system
• Slow slip and future earthquake potential in New Zealand and Cascadia
• Revealing the secrets of the New Zealand GeoPRISMS Primary Site
• HOBITSS Hikurangi Ocean Bottom Investigation of Tremor and Slow Slip
• Report: South Island, New Zealand primary site coordination mini-workshop
• Report: Workshop to cultivate and coordinate GeoPRISMS studies of the Hikurangi subduction margin
• IODP Workshop on Using Ocean Drilling to Unlock the Secrets of Slow Slip Events
• The New Zealand Primary Site Implementation Planning Workshop Report
• Report: Kermadec Arc-Havre Trough Planning Mini-Workshop