Recent deformation of Quaternary sediments as inferred from GPR images and shallow P-wave velocity tomograms: Northwest Canterbury Plains, New Zealand

Prior to the recent highly damaging M 7.1 earthquake near the city of Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand, we recorded coincident high-resolution seismic and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data across parts of the northwest Canterbury Plains. The seismic reflection images reveal a vast network of interconnected faults and folds below a seemingly undisturbed flat surface. To complement the seismic images, which only provide limited information on the very shallow subsurface (i.e., < 20 m), we have now processed and analysed the GPR data. The migrated GPR images are dominated by complex reflection patterns characteristic of glaciofluvial sediments. Such sediments eroded from the Southern Alps are observed at the surface throughout our study site. Although it is difficult to distinguish between complexities associated with complicated sedimentation processes and disruptions and offsets of GPR reflections associated with recent movements on faults and folds, we identify a number of regions where the GPR data are consistent with tectonic deformation of Holocene sediments. Two of these regions straddle an interpolated connection between active faults mapped at the surface. In a third region, the development of river terraces imaged in the GPR data may have been affected by slip on newly discovered underlying faults. The most significant near-surface deformation, which is apparent on a coincident seismic reflection image, P-wave tomogram and GPR image, is observed on the flank of a major anticline that appears to have been thrust close to the surface along a reverse fault. Some of the faults and folds resolved in our seismic and GPR data may have been reactivated during the recent period of intense seismicity.

► A large GPR survey was carried out near the M 7.1 Darfield, NZ event epicenter.
► Resulting GPR images overlap with seismic tomograms and seismic reflection images.
► In the joint images, Cenozoic aged faulting and folding can be traced to the surface.
► There are strong indications that faulting and folding continued in the Holocene.
► More constraints on the location and timing of shallow deformation is now available.