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50thKaikoura05 -1- Kaikoura 2005 CHARACTERISATION OF NEW ...

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core complex mode, temperature driven viscosity<br />

variations can determine whether the lower crust<br />

flows in a distributed manner or localisation occurs.<br />

This may allow a distinction between ‘cold’ or<br />

‘strong’ core complexes and ‘hot’ or ‘weak’ core<br />

complexes. The latter develop when the lower crust<br />

has a markedly low viscosity. Hot core complexes<br />

in numerical simulations are characterized by largescale<br />

normal faults with great slip and cooling rates<br />

and the de-velopment of an overall symmetric<br />

geometry expressed by a relatively late, secondary<br />

ductile shear zone with an antithetic movement<br />

sense caused by symmetric, plume-like extrusion of<br />

the hot and weak lower crust. In nature, hot core<br />

complexes may be ex-pressed by extension-related<br />

migmatite domes in their footwalls. Most core<br />

complexes worldwide appear to belong to the<br />

monovergent cold case. We report on a hot core<br />

complex exposed on the islands of Naxos and Ios in<br />

the Aegean Sea.<br />

The Aegean Sea is an example of ongoing<br />

continental extension and core complex formation<br />

caused by the retreating Hellenic subduction zone.<br />

The extension-related migmatite dome on Naxos<br />

Island is characterized by cooling rates<br />

>100°C/Myr. Low-temperature thermochronology<br />

reveals great slip rates of ~10 km/Myr associated<br />

with the top-N Naxos detachment, which is the<br />

major detachment of the hot core complex. The<br />

secondary, antihtetic top-S normal fault is exposed<br />

on Ios Island some 40 km south of Naxos. Age data<br />

suggest that the top-S shear zone on Ios formed ~2-<br />

5 Myr after the Naxos detachment. These data are<br />

consistent with the numerical simulations of hot<br />

core complexes. Exhumation of hot footwall<br />

material on Ios did not expose magmatites but<br />

triggered anatexis in the lower crust producing synextensional<br />

S-type granites in the footwall. Naxos<br />

and Ios are presently situated in a central position<br />

above the retreating Hellenic subduction zone. We<br />

argue that asthenospheric flow associated with<br />

subduc-tion-zone retreat caused increased heat<br />

input in the center of the region affected by subduction-zone<br />

retreat causing the anomalous hot<br />

conditions on Naxos and Ios.<br />

The Paparoa core complex in Buller, South Island,<br />

is a symmetric core complex (Tulloch &<br />

Kimbrough 1989) suggesting it fits the hot core<br />

complex case. High cooling rates of the Buckland<br />

granite in the footwall of the Paparoa core complex<br />

(Spell et al. 2000) are in line with this<br />

interpretation. In addition, the Paparoa core<br />

complex should have detachments with slightly<br />

different ages, with large displacements and high<br />

slip rates. Furthermore, high-grade rocks should<br />

occur in the footwall (White et al. 1994) and their<br />

peak metamorphism should be of Late Cretaceous<br />

age.<br />

ORAL<br />

PALAEOMAGNETISM <strong>OF</strong> VOLCANIC<br />

ROCKS IN WAITAKERE AND<br />

COROMANDEL, AND MIOCENE<br />

RECONSTRUCTION <strong>OF</strong> <strong>NEW</strong> ZEALAND<br />

D.J. Robertson<br />

Physics Department, University of Namibia, P/Bag<br />

13301 Windhoek, NAMIBIA.<br />

(DJR*unam.na)<br />

Samples from 8 sites in the Waitakere Group,<br />

located to the west of Auckland, and 8 sites in the<br />

Coromandel Group in the Coromandel Peninsula<br />

have been studied palaeomagnetically using<br />

complete progressive af demagnetisation. The two<br />

Groups lie on opposite limbs of a gentle anticline,<br />

and the respective formation mean palaeofield<br />

directions become more consistent after unfolding<br />

is carried out on a regional basis. After unfolding,<br />

the palaeofield directions are 346.9°, -62.1°, 26.7°<br />

(as declination, inclination and �95) for the<br />

Waitakere Group and 347.5°, -57.9°, 14.1° for the<br />

Coromandel Group. Comparison of these results<br />

with palaeomagnetic data for other parts of New<br />

Zealand indicates that, relative to the southeast<br />

South Island and Chatham Rise, the Northern North<br />

Island has migrated northwards by an amount in the<br />

order of 1000 km and rotated by some 12°<br />

anticlockwise and since Miocene time. This is<br />

consistent with large scale dextral displacement of<br />

the Alpine Fault, compression in the Southern Alps<br />

and dilatation in the North Island. Anomalous<br />

clockwise rotation in the order of 15° to 45° which<br />

has been reported for the eastern North Island and<br />

Marlborough is attributable to dextral shear<br />

deformation in a zone incorporating the Hikurangi<br />

Trench system and likely extensions of the Alpine<br />

Fault.<br />

ORAL<br />

GEOCHEMICAL ASPECTS <strong>OF</strong> THE<br />

COROMANDEL VOLCANIC ZONE: TRACE<br />

ELEMENT AND RARE EARTH ELEMENT<br />

DATA<br />

K.A. Robertson 1 , R.M. Briggs 1 ,<br />

& M.I. Leybourne 2<br />

1 Department of Earth Sciences, University of<br />

Waikato, P B 3105, Hamilton.<br />

2 Dept. of Geosciences, University of Texas at<br />

Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA<br />

(kr48*waikato.ac.nz)<br />

Late Cenozoic volcanic activity in the North Island<br />

of New Zealand has been attributed to a series of<br />

volcanic arcs following the movement of the<br />

subduction zone boundary between the Pacific and<br />

Indo-Australian plates. The Coromandel Volcanic<br />

Zone (CVZ) is one such volcanic arc active from 18<br />

50 th <strong>Kaikoura</strong>05 -75- <strong>Kaikoura</strong> <strong>2005</strong>

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