Editing Southern Alps (section)

==Geology==
[[File:Mount Cook 2.jpg|thumb|right| View of [[Aoraki / Mount Cook]], the highest peak, from the [[Hooker Valley Track]]]]
[[Image:Alpine Fault SRTM (vertical).jpg|<!--135px-->135px|right|thumb|Shaded and colored image from the [[Shuttle Radar Topography Mission]]—shows an [[topology|elevation model]] of New Zealand's [[Alpine Fault]] running about 500&nbsp;km (300&nbsp;mi) long. The escarpment is flanked by a chain of hills squeezed between the [[Fault (geology)|fault]] and the mountains of the Southern Alps. Northeast is towards the top.]]

The Southern Alps lie along a geological [[plate boundary]], part of the [[Pacific Ring of Fire]], with the [[Pacific Plate]] to the southeast pushing westward and colliding with the northward-moving [[Indo-Australian Plate]] to the northwest.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Hamish |last2=Hutching |first2=Gerard |title=In search of ancient New Zealand |date=2007 |publisher=[[Penguin Books|Penguin]]; [[GNS Science]] |location=[[North Shore, N.Z.]] |isbn=978-0-143-02088-2 |page=35}}</ref>  Over the last 45 million years, the collision has pushed up a 20&nbsp;km thickness of rocks on the Pacific Plate to form the Alps, although much of this has been eroded away. Uplift has been most rapid during the last 5&nbsp;million years, and the mountains continue to be raised today by [[tectonics|tectonic]] pressure, causing earthquakes on the [[Alpine Fault]] and other nearby faults. Despite the substantial uplift, most of the relative motion along the Alpine Fault is [[Fault (geology)#Strike-slip faults|transverse]], not [[Fault (geology)#Dip-slip faults|vertical]].{{sfn |Campbell|Hutching|2007|pp=204–205}} However, significant dip-slip occurs on the plate boundary to the north and east of the North Island, in the [[Hikurangi Trough]] and [[Kermadec Trench]]. The transfer of motion from strike-slip on the Alpine Fault to dip-slip motion at these subduction zones to the north creates the [[Marlborough Fault System]], which has resulted in significant uplift in the region.

In 2017 a large international team of scientists reported they had discovered beneath [[Whataroa]], a small township on the Alpine Fault, "extreme" hydrothermal activity which "could be commercially very significant".<ref name="Sutherland">{{cite journal |last1=Sutherland |first1=Rupert |last2=Townend |first2=John |last3=Toy |first3=Virginia |last4=Upton |first4=Phaedra |last5=Coussens |first5=Jamie |last6=Allen |first6=Michael |author7=60 others |name-list-style=and |title=Extreme hydrothermal conditions at an active plate-bounding fault |journal=Nature |date=June 2017 |volume=546 |issue=7656 |pages=137–140 |doi=10.1038/nature22355 |pmid=28514440 |bibcode=2017Natur.546..137S |hdl=1874/351355 |s2cid=205256017 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317005994 |access-date=6 February 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Elder |first1=Vaughan |title=Geothermal discovery on West Coast |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/west-coast/geothermal-discovery-west-coast |access-date=6 February 2021 |work=[[Otago Daily Times]] |date=18 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314174145/https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/west-coast/geothermal-discovery-west-coast |archive-date=14 March 2018 |page=|url-status=live |language=en |quote=''&thinsp;'Nobody on our team, or any of the scientists who reviewed our plans, predicted that it would be so hot down there.  This geothermal activity may sound alarming but it is a wonderful scientific finding that could be commercially very significant for New Zealand.'&thinsp;''}}</ref>