Doubtful Sound is one of many dramatic glacial fiords that define the landscape of Fiordland on New Zealand's South Island. Late Cenozoic uplift of Fiordland appears to be temporally related to increased convergence—and possibly the initiation of subduction—across the segment of the Pacific-Australian plate boundary that lies offshore of Fiordland today. Caltech Professor Mike Gurnis and Dr. Martha House, in collaboration with colleagues from the Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences and Waikato University in New Zealand are studying the response of Fiordland to this change in relative plate motion.

Photo courtesy of Martha House