The fault zone extends from the Ahuriri River in the south to Whale Stream at the northern end of Lake Pukaki.

The boundary between the Australian and Pacific plates converges obliquely at about 38 mm (1.5 in)/year in this region[5] of the South Island of New Zealand.

The right-lateral transpressional Alpine Fault along the western aspect of the South Island takes up no more than 80% of this movement.

The faults are mainly North–South trending, west-dipping close to pure reverse dip-slip faults[4] that offset a thick sequence of Quaternary glacial outwash and late Neogene lake and stream sediments, up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft) thick,[5] from the Southern Alps in the Mackenzie Basin.

[11] Contemporary risk is associated with the vertical slip rate of at least 1.1 mm (0.043 in)/year with a recurrence interval of 3000 years and the non trivial size of past events.