The Waipara – Kowai groundwater allocation zones (referred to as zones) are located 50 kilometers north of Christchurch. Land use in the Waipara zone has evolved from dry land farming towards horticultural and irrigated pastoral farming, and as such the demand for groundwater resources has increased significantly. Recent 14C age dating has shown that deep wells tap >1000 years old water, raising concerns about possible resource mining. The Kowai groundwater allocation zone has had minimal regional hydrogeological investigations and previously little is known about the groundwater resources here. The Waipara – Kowai groundwater allocation zones are located near obliquely convergent plate margin and the Porters Pass Fault System. Recent (early Quaternary) deformation has been noted by workers along margins and associated with emerging structures within basins. These emerging faults and folds within the basin are acting as hydrological barriers, hindering the passage of groundwater within the basin. A geomorphic map was constructed for this study based on existing soils maps, limited field soil surveys and morphometric analysis. Nine geomorphic surfaces are described, with inferred ages of modern to >73 ka. The geomorphic investigation revealed that the Kowai groundwater allocation zone surface is stepped, with increasing thickness of loess up gradient on the downlands. Near the coast there is intercalated terrestrial and marine sediments, to the west overlying the Kowai Formation are small alluvial fans. In the Waipara Basin the Waipara fan dominates the central portion of the basin, with smaller fluvial and alluvial fans building out from the margins. Groundwater recharge was investigated using chemical, isotopic, water level observations and a simple water balance. It was found that in the Kowai zone the major recharge sources were the rainfall, losses from the rivers and streams. The southern region of the Waipara zone is recharged by rainfall with small contributions from the Kowai River (North Branch). In the South region of the Waipara Basin groundwater recharge is derived from rainfall and losses from streams. The groundwater systems are conceptualized as being topographically driven, with slope – basin floors interactions being an important source of groundwater recharge.

We present crustal velocities for 29 continuously recording GPS stations from the southern central Andes across the Puna, Eastern Cordillera, and Santa Barbara system for the period between the 27 February 2010 Maule and 1 April 2014 Iquique earthquakes in a South American frame. The velocity field exhibits a systematic decrease in magnitude from similar to 35mm/yr near the trench to <1mm/yr within the craton. We forward model loading on the Nazca-South America (NZ-SA) subduction interface using back slip on elastic dislocations to approximate a fully locked interface from 10 to 50km depth. We generate an ensemble of models by iterating over the percentage of NZ-SA convergence accommodated at the subduction interface. Velocity residuals calculated for each model demonstrate that locking on the NZ-SA interface is insufficient to reproduce the observed velocities. We model deformation associated with a back-arc decollement using an edge dislocation, estimating model parameters from the velocity residuals for each forward model of the subduction interface ensemble using a Bayesian approach. We realize our best fit to the thrust-perpendicular velocity field with 705% of NZ-SA convergence accommodated at the subduction interface and a slip rate of 9.10.9mm/yr on the fold-thrust belt decollement. We also estimate a locking depth of 149km, which places the downdip extent of the locked zone 13520km from the thrust front. The thrust-parallel component of velocity is fit by a constant shear strain rate of -19x10(-9)yr-(1), equivalent to clockwise rigid block rotation of the back arc at a rate of 1.1 degrees/Myr.

The tallest mountain in North America, Mount McKinley is situated inside a sharp bend in the right‐lateral Denali fault. This anomalous topography is clearly associated with the complex geometry of the Denali fault, but how this topography evolves in conjunction with the adjacent strike‐slip fault is unknown. To constrain how this fault bend is deforming, the Quaternary fault‐related deformation on the opposite side of the Denali fault from Mount McKinley were documented through combined geologic mapping, active fault characterization, and analysis of background seismicity. My mapping illustrates an east‐west change in faulting style where normal faults occur east of the fault bend and thrust faults predominate to the west. These faults offset glacial outwash terraces and moraines which, with tentative correlations with the regional glacial history, provide fault slip rates that suggest that the Denali fault bend is migrating southwestward. The complex and elevated regional seismicity corroborates the style of faulting associated with the fault bend and provide additional subsurface control on the location of active faults. Seismologic and neotectonic constraints suggest that the maximum compressive stress axis rotates from vertical east of the bend to horizontal and Denali fault‐normal west of the bend.

Critical inputs to evaluate fault behavior models include the frequency of large earthquakes on plate boundary faults, amount of displacement, style of deformation in these events, and how these earthquakes are associated with adjacent sites and broader segments. Paleoseismic data provide these inputs and allow the characterization of hazard posed by individual faults. This dissertation presents results from paleoseismic studies at Hazel Dell and Frazier Mountain that provide new earthquake chronologies and slip estimates for the San Andreas Fault (SAF). These data provide new insights into the recurrence and style of coseismic deformation for surface rupturing earthquakes on the SAF. The Hazel Dell site provides the first definitive paleoseismic evidence of two pre-1906, 19th century earthquakes on the Santa Cruz Mountains section of the SAF. I correlate these paleoseismic findings with the historic record of ground shaking associated with earthquakes in that period and combine the style of deformation in the last 3 events at the site with results from nearby paleoseismic sites to estimate earthquake rupture lengths and magnitudes for these early historic events. These findings increase the frequency of historic surface rupturing earthquakes on the northern SAF three-fold. At the Frazier Mountain site, on the southern SAF, I mapped deformation across a releasing step on the fault for the last five surface rupturing earthquakes to estimate deformation per-event. I compare the geometry and amount of vertical relief generated across the step-over by retrodeforming 3D surfaces interpolated from paleoseismic data step-wise for stratigraphic units deformed by each of those earthquakes. I find that structural relief is similar in four of the last five events, so slip on the fault must be within the same range for these earthquakes to generate approximately equivalent structural relief across the step-over. These results suggest displacement on the fault is comparable at the Frazier Mountain site for the last 4 events, including deformation resulting from 4-5 m lateral displacements in the historic M 7.9 1857 earthquake. This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished coauthored material. Supplemental file Plate A includes additional trench logs for the Hazel Dell site, presented in Chapters II and III.

Identifying tectonically active faults and quantifying rates of movement is a key challenge in the Earth Sciences, in addition to this the interactions between active faulting and the landscape, specifically involving the fluvial network, is a relatively new area of study. Previous work has highlighted the value of understanding how the fluvial network responds to active tectonics, showing that a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic relationship between fluvial geomorphology and active tectonics is an important next step in geological research. This study presents new information about the poorly constrained Quaternary tectonic history of the Gediz Graben, Turkey, providing the first quantification of rates of movement of the key fault array that presently controlling graben topography. The fluvial network has been investigated and the data has been used in order to add resolution to the tectonic history for the fault array, allowing for the quantification of post-linkage throw rates. The study then investigates the key controls on the behaviour of the fluvial network that cross the active topography building fault array in the Gediz Graben. This study shows that there has been a linkage event occurring between 0.6 – 1 Ma, involving the three segments of the graben bounding fault array. The pre- and post-linkage throw rates are then extrapolated using data derived from the fluvial network, showing a faulting enhancement factor of 3 at the centre of the fault array, with the throw rate at the centre of the array predicted to have increased from a pre-linkage rate of 0.6 ± 0.1 mm/yr to a rate of 2 ± 0.2 mm/yr. This research provides evidence that the fluvial network can be used in conjunction with other types of evidence to provide a greater resolution tectonic history. Using both digital data and field studies this research presents an examination of the factors that influence the behaviour of bedrock rivers undergoing perturbation due to tectonics. Factors such as drainage area, tectonic throw rates and lithology have been investigated and the complicated interactions of these variables with the fluvial system have been quantified. This study shows that the bedrock rivers are a significant source of information about tectonics, but further work is needed to resolve quantitatively how various factors influence how rivers adjust to tectonic perturbation, in a variety of tectonic situations, in order to enable river to be used as a primary tool for deriving information about tectonics.

In this thesis, I use multiple techniques to investigate the active faulting and deformation of the Altay Mountains, Western Mongolia. The Altay are an intracontinental transpressional mountain range, which are deforming in the far-field of the India-Asia collision. An anastomosing network of dextral faults strikes NNW-SSE, and accommodates NE-SW oriented shortening by rotating anticlockwise about vertical axes. I begin by characterising the Altay faults, and add to what is already known about their surface expression with new observations of active faulting and three previously undescribed ancient earthquake ruptures. I use ¹⁰Be cosmogenic dating and uranium-series dating on pedogenic carbonate to estimate the average Quaternary rate of slip for two of the major fault zones in the Altay. The slip rate on the Ölgiy fault is constrained to 0.3-2.1 mm/yr^-1. Results from the Hovd fault are ambiguous, demonstrating the complications encountered with application of Quaternary dating techniques. I measure palaeomagnetic directions from Cretaceous to Pliocene-aged sediments in the eastern Altay to constrain the degree of anticlockwise rotation. Results from thermal demagnetisation of specimens indicate that the eastern Altay has not undergone significant rotation, in contrast with previous studies from the Siberian Altay that reveal almost 40 degrees of anticlockwise rotation. This suggests that the eastern-most Altay fault is too young to have experienced significant rotation, or is kinematically different from the Siberian Altay. I apply apatite fission track (AFT) dating and track length modeling to the central Altay. Results from AFT dating show rapid cooling in the late Cretaceous due to the distal assembly of Central Asia, suggesting that there was pre-existing topography at the start of the Late Cenozoic phase of deformation, the timing of which is constrained to have initiated at least 20 Myr ago. My work demonstrates that combining results from techniques that cover a variety of time scales quantifies the evolution of active faulting and deformation in the region.

In this thesis I use Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and GPS geodetic observations, along with numerical models, to examine the distribution of strain, assess seismic hazard, and study the dynamics of deformation across Turkey and Iran. I measure interseismic strain accumulation across the Ashkabad fault using InSAR, and find that atmospheric corrections using MERIS (Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) data are necessary in order to retrieve the tectonic signal in the presence of large atmospheric delays. I estimate a slip rate of 5-12 mm/yr for the Ashkabad fault which is faster than previous geodetic estimates. I also attempt to validate atmospheric corrections derived from the ERA-Interim numerical weather model and find that they do not work satisfactorily for this region. I produce InSAR-derived velocity maps for five overlapping tracks in Eastern Turkey, covering both the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) and East Anatolian Fault (EAF), and measure slip rates for the NAF and EAF of 20+/-3 mm/yr and 10+/-2 mm/yr respectively. I calculate a velocity field for Eastern Turkey from these InSAR data and a compilation of GPS data, and find that strain is mainly localised across the NAF and EAF and that there is negligible differential vertical motion across the Anatolian Plateau. I construct a thin viscous sheet model for Iran and find that the GPS velocity field is well described by deformation of a ductile lithosphere. Contrary to previous suggestions, a rigid central Iran is not required to match the kinematics of Iranian deformation, but buoyancy forces acting in the lithosphere are found to play an important role. I develop a new method to assess slip rates and therefore seismic hazard on major faults in Iran from this continuum model. In this thesis I have measured slip rates across three major strike-slip faults using InSAR; the first time this has been achieved for the Ashkabad fault and the EAF. I have demonstrated the importance of atmospheric correction for these results, and have shown that Iran deforms as a continuous medium.

O Pantanal Matogrossense divide-se em onze sub-regiões com características muito distintas, entre elas a Nhecolândia, cuja porção oeste, a Baixa Nhecolândia, apresenta uma fisiografia única no planeta, com milhares de lagoas salinas e hipossalinas intercaladas de forma aparentemente aleatória. Este ambiente, inserido em uma planície muito mais ampla, tem parte de seus limites bruscos e retilíneos. Um deles, a NW, reconhecido na literatura como de origem tectônica, é dado por reativação do Lineamento Transbrasiliano que soergueu a Baixa Nhecolândia. O outro, a SW, embora também retilíneo, não tem na literatura menção a uma possível origem tectônica. Considerando a dificuldade de se encontrar em areias inconsolidadas evidências diretas de possíveis estruturas, optou-se por buscar em variações topográficas evidências deste evento. A região tem gradiente topográfico extremamente baixo, com declividade para SW dando-se em cm/km e a diferença de altitude encontrada no limite NW da ordem de 4 m. Considerando usar modelos digitais de terreno gerados por imagens SRTM para obter perfis altimétricos das porções lineares dos limites daquele ambiente, encontrou-se o problema de ruídos de alta freqüência inerentes ao método, gerando variações de até 16 m na altitude indicada, portanto, várias vezes superiores às variações do terreno. Sendo quase perfeitamente gaussiana a distribuição dos erros em valores negativos e positivos desenvolveu-se um filtro passa-baixas ponderado baseado no princípio dos de média móvel, utilizados para esse fim há décadas. Aplicado este filtro pôde-se não apenas confirmar as variações de altitude do limite NW como obter indicações do limite SW. Com isso pôde-se formular a hipótese de estar toda a Baixa Nhecolândia soerguida em relação às planícies vizinhas, hipótese que tem como corolário a de que a origem do campo de lagos seria função de tal soerguimento, com o rebaixamento do nível de base isolando segmentos das drenagens pré-existentes. A este limite SW nomeou-se Lineamento do Rio Negro, o qual em sua continuidade para NW captura o rio Paraguai e se confunde com o Lineamento Tucavaca, na Bolívia. Por outro lado foi realçada a distribuição das lagoas, utilizando filtros passa-baixas ponderados desenvolvidos previamente para realçar feições geológicas de baixa freqüência. Com isso pôde-se verificar padrões diferenciados na distribuição de lagoas salinas e hipossalinas, com concentração de lagoas salinas dando-se, aparentemente, em porções mais elevadas da planície, como confirmado em uma região, no extremo oeste da Nhecolândia. Não se descarta, portanto, uma influência da tectônica na distribuição das lagoas salinas da Baixa Nhecolândia. / The Pantanal Matogrossense is divided in eleven sub-regions that present highly distinct characteristics. Among these sub-regions is the Nhecolândia, whose West portion presents a unique physiography in the globe, with thousands of randomly disposed saline ponds. This environment is part of a much wider plain and shows part of its limits sharp and straight. The NW limit has a tectonic origin resulting from reactivation of the Transbrasiliano Lineament, which caused the uplift of the Low Nhecolândia. The SW limit is also straight, but no mention to its possible tectonic origin exists. As the sands present are incohesive, there are no direct records of these possible tectonic structures and we opted to use topographic variations to search for evidences. The area has an extremely low topographic gradient and shows cm/km SW-verging declivities, as well as circa 4 m levels differences in the NW limit. Attempts of using digital models generated by SRTM images in order to obtain altimetric profiles of the linear portions in its limits, problems regarding the highfrequency noises that are part of the method were found. This generated up to 16 m variations in the topography, much higher than the real variations on the terrain. As the distribution of both positive and negative errors is nearly gaussian we developed a weighted low-pass filter based on the mobile average principle, which has been used for decades. The application of this filter allowed to confirm not only the variations in the topography in the NW limit but also to obtain information about the SW limit. This lead to the hypothesis that the whole Low Nhecolândia must have been uplifted in relation to the neighboring plains and the field of ponds would have its origin as a function of such uplift as the base level is goes down and isolates segments from former drainages. The SW limit is being called Rio Negro Lineament, which continues to NW and gets the Paraguai River and mix with the Tucavaca Lineament, in Bolivia. On the other hand the distribution of the ponds was remarked when using the weighted low-pass filter previously developed to enhance lowfrequency geological features. We could then verify different patterns in the distribution of both saline and hyphosaline ponds. The first concentrates apparently in higher portions in the plain, as confirmed in a region at the West part of Nhecolândia. The tectonic influence in the distribution of the saline ponds in the Low Nhecolândia cannot be discarded.

O Pantanal Matogrossense divide-se em onze sub-regiões com características muito distintas, entre elas a Nhecolândia, cuja porção oeste, a Baixa Nhecolândia, apresenta uma fisiografia única no planeta, com milhares de lagoas salinas e hipossalinas intercaladas de forma aparentemente aleatória. Este ambiente, inserido em uma planície muito mais ampla, tem parte de seus limites bruscos e retilíneos. Um deles, a NW, reconhecido na literatura como de origem tectônica, é dado por reativação do Lineamento Transbrasiliano que soergueu a Baixa Nhecolândia. O outro, a SW, embora também retilíneo, não tem na literatura menção a uma possível origem tectônica. Considerando a dificuldade de se encontrar em areias inconsolidadas evidências diretas de possíveis estruturas, optou-se por buscar em variações topográficas evidências deste evento. A região tem gradiente topográfico extremamente baixo, com declividade para SW dando-se em cm/km e a diferença de altitude encontrada no limite NW da ordem de 4 m. Considerando usar modelos digitais de terreno gerados por imagens SRTM para obter perfis altimétricos das porções lineares dos limites daquele ambiente, encontrou-se o problema de ruídos de alta freqüência inerentes ao método, gerando variações de até 16 m na altitude indicada, portanto, várias vezes superiores às variações do terreno. Sendo quase perfeitamente gaussiana a distribuição dos erros em valores negativos e positivos desenvolveu-se um filtro passa-baixas ponderado baseado no princípio dos de média móvel, utilizados para esse fim há décadas. Aplicado este filtro pôde-se não apenas confirmar as variações de altitude do limite NW como obter indicações do limite SW. Com isso pôde-se formular a hipótese de estar toda a Baixa Nhecolândia soerguida em relação às planícies vizinhas, hipótese que tem como corolário a de que a origem do campo de lagos seria função de tal soerguimento, com o rebaixamento do nível de base isolando segmentos das drenagens pré-existentes. A este limite SW nomeou-se Lineamento do Rio Negro, o qual em sua continuidade para NW captura o rio Paraguai e se confunde com o Lineamento Tucavaca, na Bolívia. Por outro lado foi realçada a distribuição das lagoas, utilizando filtros passa-baixas ponderados desenvolvidos previamente para realçar feições geológicas de baixa freqüência. Com isso pôde-se verificar padrões diferenciados na distribuição de lagoas salinas e hipossalinas, com concentração de lagoas salinas dando-se, aparentemente, em porções mais elevadas da planície, como confirmado em uma região, no extremo oeste da Nhecolândia. Não se descarta, portanto, uma influência da tectônica na distribuição das lagoas salinas da Baixa Nhecolândia. / The Pantanal Matogrossense is divided in eleven sub-regions that present highly distinct characteristics. Among these sub-regions is the Nhecolândia, whose West portion presents a unique physiography in the globe, with thousands of randomly disposed saline ponds. This environment is part of a much wider plain and shows part of its limits sharp and straight. The NW limit has a tectonic origin resulting from reactivation of the Transbrasiliano Lineament, which caused the uplift of the Low Nhecolândia. The SW limit is also straight, but no mention to its possible tectonic origin exists. As the sands present are incohesive, there are no direct records of these possible tectonic structures and we opted to use topographic variations to search for evidences. The area has an extremely low topographic gradient and shows cm/km SW-verging declivities, as well as circa 4 m levels differences in the NW limit. Attempts of using digital models generated by SRTM images in order to obtain altimetric profiles of the linear portions in its limits, problems regarding the highfrequency noises that are part of the method were found. This generated up to 16 m variations in the topography, much higher than the real variations on the terrain. As the distribution of both positive and negative errors is nearly gaussian we developed a weighted low-pass filter based on the mobile average principle, which has been used for decades. The application of this filter allowed to confirm not only the variations in the topography in the NW limit but also to obtain information about the SW limit. This lead to the hypothesis that the whole Low Nhecolândia must have been uplifted in relation to the neighboring plains and the field of ponds would have its origin as a function of such uplift as the base level is goes down and isolates segments from former drainages. The SW limit is being called Rio Negro Lineament, which continues to NW and gets the Paraguai River and mix with the Tucavaca Lineament, in Bolivia. On the other hand the distribution of the ponds was remarked when using the weighted low-pass filter previously developed to enhance lowfrequency geological features. We could then verify different patterns in the distribution of both saline and hyphosaline ponds. The first concentrates apparently in higher portions in the plain, as confirmed in a region at the West part of Nhecolândia. The tectonic influence in the distribution of the saline ponds in the Low Nhecolândia cannot be discarded.

Over the past few decades, remote sensing has emerged as a powerful tool for studying active faulting in continental regions. However, the commonly used remote sensing techniques, including radar interferometry, visual inspection of imagery, and image matching, cannot measure three-dimensional (3D) surface displacements in earthquakes, limiting our ability to investigate faulting. The improvement of very high-resolution (VHR) optical imaging systems (stereo in particular) in recent years has made it possible for earth scientists to measure 3D surface deformation remotely. In this thesis, I contribute to assessing the capability of VHR optical imagery, by determining earthquake deformation from four different types of earthquakes (different in sense of slip and date of the event). In the case of the 2010 M_w 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah, Mexico earthquake, I show that digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from Pleiades stereo imagery are comparable to light detection and ranging (LiDAR) surveys, and differencing pre- and post-earthquake DEMs can measure 3D displacements, which will be very useful for studying future earthquakes. For the 2013 M_w 7.7 Balochistan, Pakistan earthquake, I determine the vertical motion from a post-earthquake Pleiades DEM and find constant fault kinematics throughout the Late Quaternary. This study has resolved a current controversy of the Balochistan earthquake, in which it has been argued that kinematics of the Hoshab fault switches between strike-slip and dip-slip. Applying historical aerial, KH-9 Hexagon spy satellite, SPOT-2 and modern SPOT-6 images to the 1978 M_w 7.3 Tabas-e-Golshan earthquake, I measure the coseismic and postseismic displacements, and show that the Tabas fold system in eastern Iran may exhibit characteristic slip behaviour. Combining Pleiades imagery, fieldwork and geological dating techniques, I determine slip in the 1556 Huaxian earthquake in China and the recurrence interval for similar events. These examples demonstrate the usefulness of high-resolution optical imagery in investigating past and present earthquakes.