The nature of the plate interface and driving force of interseismic deformation in the New Zealand plate‐boundary zone, revealed by the continuous GPS velocity field

New Zealand straddles the boundary between the Australian and Pacific plates. Cenozoic relative plate motion has resulted in a complex pattern of faulting and block rotation, with displacements on individual faults up to hundreds of kilometers. However, over periods of several years, GPS measurements show a remarkably smooth pattern of velocities. We show here using a new method of back slip analysis, that almost the entire plate‐boundary continuous GPS velocity field can be predicted within measurement error from a simple model of elastic distortion due to deep slip on a single plate interface (megathrust in the Hikurangi and Putsegur subduction zones or fault through continental lithosphere beneath the Southern Alps) at the relative plate motion rates. This suggests that the main driving force of plate‐boundary deformation is slip on the deeper moving part of the plate interface, without buried creep in localized shear zones beneath individual surface faults. The depth at which this deep slip terminates (locking point line) determines the width of deformation. Along the Hikurangi margin, there is also clockwise rotation of ~150 km long segment of the fore arc (Wairoa domain) at 4.5° ± 1 Ma, relative to the Australian Plate, about a pole in western North Island; model residuals in the velocity field are mainly a result of incomplete averaging of the cycle of slow slip events on the plate interface, downdip of the locking point.