The Alpine Fault and Southern Alps

     Today I was awoken from a deep, jet-lagged sleep at a impossible 5:30 in the morning, which thank God is like 12:30 Cali time. Still it took both my parents to pry me out of bed and get me out of our hotel, which is surprisingly nice. I guess the research team that has been put together is being sponsored by this big shot who insisted upon the highest accommodations. Well, I'm not complaining, except when it comes to my skipping the studies and lab work, which for you information I was not allowed to do. So, now I'm on site at the base of Mount Cook, the highest peak of the Sothern Alps,which the locals call Aoraki.  Its absolutely pouring and the winds are pretty strong but the landscape is gorgeous. The rainfall has made the area nice and green, and the snow-capped mountains look picturesque beside the Tasman River.  They say that the Alps were formed when three brothers were canoeing and became stranded on a reef. The south wind then froze the wrecked canoe into the South Island and the brothers into the mountains. The tallest of them was a child named Aoraki for which the mountain is named. Although this is obviously a legend my parents haven't stopped ranting on the impossibility of the story of the mountains' formation. All I have heard all day long is how the movement of tectonic plates formed these mountains. 
     From what I understand there are two plates, the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates, that are sliding past each other. This sort of plate boundary is called a transform boundary, and this specific one is called the Alpine Fault (located at 43.2 degrees South latitude, 170.5 degrees East longitude). These two plates despite moving predominantly past each other are also moving into each other as well. This movement is driven by convection currents in the mantle, moving the plates above. The subsequent pressure between the plates is what forces up the earth, and along with the accompanying earthquakes the Southern Alps have been formed. The associated tension of the transform boundary is what gives these mountains some of there fissures.There is little to no volcanic activity as that isn't very common with transform faults. The pressure between these plates builds, and then when it finally becomes to much the plates slide causing ruptures and earthquakes. From 1848- 2009 there have been seven major earthquakes that received between a 7.1 and 7.8 magnitude. Over the last thousand years there have been four major ruptures which occurred around 1100, 1450, 1620 and 1717 CE, at intervals between 100 and 350 years. The range's growth has been fastest during the last 5 million years, and the mountains continue to be raised today. - Maris 

http://www.orc.govt.nz/Information-and-Services/Natural-Hazards/Great-Alpine-Fault-Earthquake/
Mount Aoraki and the Tasman River

http://www.gweaver.net/techhigh/projects/period1_2/Yellowstone/Plate%20Tectonics.html
A transform boundary


http://www.gweaver.net/techhigh/projects/period1_2/Yellowstone/Plate%20Tectonics.html