Macquarie fault zone
| Macquarie fault zone | |
|---|---|
| Macquarie Ridge complex, Macquarie Ridge, Macquarie Balleny Ridge, Macquarie Fault | |
Macquarie Fault Zone (yellow line) with earthquake epicenters (white circles) | |
| Etymology | Macquarie Island |
| Coordinates | 53°S 160°E / 53°S 160°E |
| Characteristics | |
| Elevation | 433 m (1,421 ft) |
| Length | 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) |
| Tectonics | |
| Plate | Australian plate and Pacific plate boundary |
| Earthquakes | Two great (> Mw8) earthquakes in 1989 and 2004 respectively |
| Type | Oceanic Crust |
| Age | |
The 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) long Macquarie fault zone (also known as the Macquarie Ridge, its gazetted name since 2015, the Macquarie Ridge complex or historically as the Macquarie Fault) is a major right lateral-moving transform fault along the seafloor of the south Pacific Ocean which runs from New Zealand southwestward towards the Macquarie triple junction. It is also the tectonic plate boundary between the Australian plate to the northwest and the Pacific plate to the southeast. As such it is a region of high seismic activity and recorded the largest strike-slip event on record up to 23 May 1989, of at least Mw8.0