Puysegur Trench facts for kids
The Puysegur Trench is a very deep valley on the ocean floor. It is about 6,300 meters (20,700 feet) deep. This trench is located in the southern Tasman Sea, south of New Zealand.
It formed when one giant piece of Earth's crust, called the Indo-Australian Plate, slid underneath another, the Pacific Plate. This process is known as subduction. East of the trench is a ridge, which is part of the Macquarie Fault Zone. This ridge separates the Puysegur Trench from the Solander Trough. To the west is the large Tasman Basin, which reaches almost to Australia. North of the trench is the Fiordland Basin, which can be seen as an extension of the trench itself. The Puysegur Trench is similar to the Kermadec Trench and Tonga Trench, which are found north of New Zealand.
The Puysegur Trench stretches for over 800 kilometers (500 miles) south. It starts from the southwestern tip of New Zealand's South Island. Its southernmost point is about 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of the Auckland Islands. The trench is named after Puysegur Point.
Earthquakes and the Puysegur Trench
The area around the Puysegur Trench is very active with earthquakes. The famous Alpine Fault in New Zealand begins at the northern end of this trench.
Major Earthquakes Near the Trench
In July 2009, New Zealand experienced its third-largest recorded earthquake. This quake had a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale. It happened close to the northern end of the trench, off the coast of Fiordland. In November 2004, a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 hit the Puysegur Trench itself.
