TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rajabi, Mojtaba
A1  - Ziegler, Moritz O.
A1  - Tingay, Mark
A1  - Heidbach, Oliver
A1  - Reynolds, Scott
T1  - Contemporary tectonic stress pattern of the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand
JF  - Journal of geophysical research : Solid earth
N2  - The present-day stress state is a key parameter in numerous geoscientific research fields including geodynamics, seismic hazard assessment, and geomechanics of georeservoirs. The Taranaki Basin of New Zealand is located on the Australian Plate and forms the western boundary of tectonic deformation due to Pacific Plate subduction along the Hikurangi margin. This paper presents the first comprehensive wellbore-derived basin-scale in situ stress analysis in New Zealand. We analyze borehole image and oriented caliper data from 129 petroleum wells in the Taranaki Basin to interpret the shape of boreholes and determine the orientation of maximum horizontal stress (S-Hmax). We combine these data (151 S-Hmax data records) with 40 stress data records derived from individual earthquake focal mechanism solutions, 6 from stress inversions of focal mechanisms, and 1 data record using the average of several focal mechanism solutions. The resulting data set has 198 data records for the Taranaki Basin and suggests a regional S-Hmax orientation of N068 degrees E (22 degrees), which is in agreement with NW-SE extension suggested by geological data. Furthermore, this ENE-WSW average S-Hmax orientation is subparallel to the subduction trench and strike of the subducting slab (N50 degrees E) beneath the central western North Island. Hence, we suggest that the slab geometry and the associated forces due to slab rollback are the key control of crustal stress in the Taranaki Basin. In addition, we find stress perturbations with depth in the vicinity of faults in some of the studied wells, which highlight the impact of local stress sources on the present-day stress rotation.
KW  - in situ stress
KW  - Taranaki Basin
KW  - New Zealand
KW  - plate tectonics
KW  - subduction zone
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JB013178
SN  - 2169-9313
SN  - 2169-9356
VL  - 121
SP  - 6053
EP  - 6070
PB  - American Geophysical Union
CY  - Washington
ER  -