Geodetic, hydrologic and seismological signals associated with precipitation and infiltration in the central Southern Alps, New Zealand

• Main Author: Oestreicher, Nicolas
• Other Authors: Townend, John, Cox, Simon
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Victoria University of Wellington 2018
• Subjects: GPS; Earthquakes; Southern Alps; Deformation; Groundwater; Seismology; Geodesy; Hydrogeology; New Zealand; Pacific; Mackenzie Basin
• Online Access: http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/handle/10063/7024

The Southern Alps of New Zealand is an actively deforming mountain range, along which collision between the Pacific and Australian plates is manifest as elevated topography, orographic weather, active contemporary deformation, and earthquakes. This thesis examines interactions between surface processes of meteorological and hydrological origin, the ground surface deformation, and processes within the seismogenic zone at depth. The two main objectives of the thesis are a better understanding of the reversible repetitive ground surface deformation in the central Southern Alps and the analysis of the evolution of the rate of microseismicity in the area to explore relationships between seismicity rates and the hydrologic cycle. Surface deformation in the central Southern Alps is characterised by a network of 19 continuous GPS stations located between the West Coast (west) and the Mackenzie Basin (east), and between Hokitika (north) to Haast (south). These show repetitive and reversible movements of up to ∼55mm on annual scales, on top of long-term plate motion, during a 17 year-long period. Stations in the high central Southern Alps exhibit the greatest annual variations, whereas others are more sensitive to changes following significant rain events. Data from 22 climate stations (including three measuring the snowpack), lake water levels and borehole pressure measurements, and numerical models of solid Earth tides and groundwater levels in bedrock fractures, are compared against geodetic data to examine whether these environmental factors can explain observed patterns in annual ground deformation. Reversible ground deformation in the central Southern Alps appears strongly correlated with shallow groundwater levels. Observed seasonal fluctuation and deformation after storm events can be explained by simple mathematical models of groundwater levels. As a corollary, local hydrological effects can be accounted for and ameliorated during preprocessing to reduce noise in geodetic data sets being analysed for tectonic ...