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The separation of Zealandia from West Antarctica was the final stage in the Cretaceous breakup of the Gondwana Pacific margin. Continental extension resulting in formation of the Great South Basin and thinning of the Campbell Plateau leading to development of the Pacific‐Antarctic spreading ridge was partially accommodated along the Sisters shear zone. This east‐northeast striking brittle‐ductile structure exposed along the southeast coast of Stewart Island, New Zealand, is a greenschist facies extensional shear zone that separates a hanging wall of chloritic, brecciated granites, and undeformed conglomerate from a footwall of mylonitic Carboniferous and Early Cretaceous granites. This complex structure exhibits bivergent kinematics and can be subdivided into a northern and southern segment. The 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology indicates that cooling of the shear zone footwall began at ∼94 Ma with accelerated cooling over the interval ∼89–82 Ma. Structural and thermochronological data indicate a spatial and temporal link between the Sisters shear zone, initial sedimentation within the offshore Great South Basin, extension of the Campbell Plateau, and initiation of the Pacific‐Antarctic spreading ridge.

A number of intra-continental alkaline volcanic sequences in NW Turkey were emplaced along localized extensional gaps within dextral strike-slip fault zones prior to the initiation of the North Anatolian Fault Zone. This study presents new palaeomagnetic and 40Ar–39Ar geochronological results from the lava flows of NW Turkey as a contribution towards understanding the Neogene–Quaternary tectonic evolution of the region and possible roles of block rotations in the kinematic history of the region. 40Ar–39Ar analyses of basalt groundmass indicate that the major volume of alkaline lavas of NW Turkey spans about 4 million years of episodic volcanic activity. Palaeomagnetic results reveal clockwise rotations as high as 73° in Thrace and 33° anticlockwise rotations in the Biga Peninsula. Movement of some of the faults delimiting the areas of lava flows and the timing of volcanic eruptions are both older than the initiation age of the North Anatolian Fault Zone, implying that the region experienced transcurrent tectonics during Late Miocene to Pliocene times and that some of the presently active faults in the region are reactivated pre-existing structures.

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