How Clay Mineral Assemblages Affect Instability on the Upper Slope of the Hikurangi Subduction Zone, New Zealand

Abstract

The Hikurangi margin offshore North Island, New Zealand (Figure 1a) conforms to most of the paradigms of subduction zones with high rates of terrigenous sedimentation (e.g., Moore & Karig, 1976;Underwood & Moore, 1995). The margin's bathymetric architecture includes a narrow shelf, forearc basins, imbricate thrusts and folds within the frontal accretionary prism, scattered slope basins, and through-going submarine canyons (Barnes