New Zealand is a country very prone to violent earth movements in the South Pacific Ocean. Active faults are distributed throughout the country. There have been 17 large earthquakes with M≥7 which occured in New Zealand since 1846. However, fault movement in various regions exhibits a great difference in size, features and intensity. In this paper, the size of active fault, the rate of horizontal and vertical crust movement since Late Quatarnary, the heat flow, the isostatic gravity and the velocity of Seismic wave beneath just the M-continuity, etc, in verious zones of New Zealand are introduced and compared. The characteristics of both recent tectonic movement and geophysical properties of the crust in different regions have been analysed briefly. From these, it leads to the result that 6 different tectonic zones cart be divided in New Zealand.
The regional characteristics of seismic activities in each tectonic zone are also discussed, based on the historical and instrumental earthquake records in New Zealand from 1960-1980.