GPR investigations on active faults in urban areas: the Georisc-NZ projectin Wellington, New Zealand

This paper presents preliminary results for three GPR profiles acquired acr oss the Wellington active strike-slip fault within the Wellington urban are a. In this sector, it is suggested that the subsurface geometry (8-10 m) of the fault comprises two main deforming strands that bound narrow transpres sive and transtensive sections. The location of fault planes interpreted fr om radargrams closely corresponds with the inferred location of the main fa ult at the ground surface. Despite noise due to the urban settings, GPR pro ved to be a technique capable of locating fault strands, thus potentially p roviding useful data in targeting areas for palaeoseismic studies, such as trenching. (C) 2001 Academie des sciences Editions scientifiques et medical es Elsevier SAS.