Topographic uplift is a common feature of collisional tectonic zone, however the timing of uplift, rates and changes in rates of uplift are not well known and their causes poorly understood. This project will use relatively newly developed tectonic geomorphology tools to determine uplift patterns in the Southern Alps of New Zealand, which are forming from active oblique collision between the Australian and Pacific plates. The tectonic interaction produces right-lateral and reverse slip across the Alpine fault, accompanied by spectacular uplift. The project would investigate uplift by mountain front pattern-discrimination approaches, examine faulted river terraces and moraines to constrain the rate of slip in the late Quaternary, and study longitudinal profiles of river terraces and channels within the western Southern Alps to seek evidence of systematic knickpoint development and terrace divergence from the modern channel. Results should provide a firmer neotectonic framework for testing geodynamics of orogenesis.
