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

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Inferred regional sea-level curve for the East Coast<br />

Basin. Section abbreviations are: BMS=Ben More<br />

Stream tributary; KR= Kekerengu River,<br />

headwaters; NS=Nidd Stream; UBM=Ben More<br />

Stream, upper reaches. H=Herring Formation,<br />

P=Paton Formation, HST=highstand systems tract,<br />

LST= lowstand systems tract, TST=transgressive<br />

systems tract, mf=maximum flooding, sb=sequence<br />

boundary.<br />

ORAL<br />

PETROLOGY AND TECTONICS <strong>OF</strong><br />

EASTERN FIORDLAND: SOME EARLY<br />

RESULTS<br />

J. Scott 1 ,A.Cooper 1 ,M.Palin 1 & A. Tulloch 2<br />

1 Geology Department, University of Otago, P.O.<br />

Box 56, Dunedin<br />

2 Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Private Bag<br />

1930, Dunedin<br />

(james.scott*paradise.net.nz)<br />

The paleo-Pacific arc margin to Gondwana records<br />

a dynamic (500-100 Ma) history of regional<br />

plutonism, metamorphism and tectonic activity.<br />

The behaviour and timing of these events, however,<br />

remains poorly understood. From Eastern<br />

Fiordland, New Zealand, we present some early<br />

findings of an investigation into the Paleozoic and<br />

Mesozoic evolution of this arc, and in particular<br />

structures exposed in the Manapouri region that<br />

might clarify a complex period of Early Cretaceous<br />

tectonism.<br />

The Grebe Shear Zone (GSZ) is a several hundred<br />

metres wide, steeply dipping, ductile, shear zone<br />

extending from south of Lake Hauroko at least<br />

70km to Lake Manapouri, Fiordland. Mapping,<br />

geochemistry and petrography indicate that it forms<br />

a significant Cretaceous tectonic suture.<br />

Volcanogenic metasediments of the Jurassic Loch<br />

Burn Formation, and Paleozoic to Mesozoic diorite,<br />

gabbronorite and hypersolvus granite, crop out to<br />

the east of the GSZ. Early Paleozoic(?) psammitic<br />

and calc-silicate metasediments intruded by weakly<br />

deformed monzonites occur directly to the west.<br />

During deformation, strain was largely partitioned<br />

into ~Late Jurassic- Early Cretaceous granitic<br />

bodies. Rotated K-feldspar porphyroclasts suggest<br />

sinistral oblique slip (lineations plunge ~45°<br />

southwards). Massive granites, of similar<br />

appearance and composition to the Early<br />

Cretaceous Separation Point Suite, cut the GSZ<br />

mylonitic fabric. Dating of these post-GSZ<br />

granitoids is in progress.<br />

Moderately dipping (~30°) Tertiary unconformities<br />

on the eastern and southern limits of Fiordland<br />

suggest that the margins of the Fiordland block<br />

have been rotated from the horizontal since the<br />

Cretaceous. The extent of rotation in Central<br />

Fiordland is unknown, but is of fundamental<br />

importance to this study because two scenarios are<br />

implied. These are (1) with no block rotation the<br />

GSZ may have been an Early Cretaceous, ~vertical,<br />

oblique slip fault, active along the margin of<br />

Central Fiordland, or (2) back-rotating<br />

unconformities closest to the GSZ requires that in<br />

pre-Tertiary time the GSZ dipped (present-day) to<br />

the east, and therefore may have faulted Eastern<br />

Fiordland over Central Fiordland during the Early<br />

Cretaceous.<br />

ORAL<br />

MARINE TEPHROSTRATIGRAPHY,<br />

NORTHERN <strong>NEW</strong> ZEALAND:<br />

IMPLICATIONS FOR TAUPO VOLCANIC<br />

ZONE, MAYOR ISLAND AND WHITE<br />

ISLAND VOLCANOES<br />

Phil Shane 1 ,E.L.Sikes 2 & T. P. Guilderson 3<br />

1 Department of Geology, University of Auckland,<br />

Private Bag 92019, Auckland<br />

2 Institute of Marine & Coastal Sciences, Rutgers<br />

University, NJ 08901-8521<br />

3 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,<br />

Livermore, CA 94551<br />

(pa.shane*auckland.ac.nz)<br />

Twenty piston cores were collected from depths of<br />

600-3000 m from offshore of northern North<br />

Island, New Zealand. They contain tephra from 11<br />

Okataina Volcanic Centre and 4 Taupo Volcanic<br />

Centre rhyolite eruptions during the last ~50 kyr<br />

that produce a tephrostratigraphic framework across<br />

a tectonically and volcanically complex region of<br />

southern Havre Trough, Alderman Trough and the<br />

Bay of Plenty continental shelf. This allows onshore<br />

to off-shore correlations up to 200 km from<br />

source volcanoes, covering much of marine isotope<br />

stages 3 and 2. The framework temporally<br />

constrains poorly dated and newly recognised<br />

volcanic events. Macroscopic tephra layers from<br />

the peralkaline Mayor Island volcano are<br />

documented for the first time at pre-50 ka, post-50<br />

ka, 39.6 ka, 36.3 ka, 21 ka, and 14.2 ka, in addition<br />

to the known 7 ka event. These represent some of<br />

the most explosive events from this volcano, and<br />

provide new marker horizons. They are dispersed<br />

up to 90 km north-east to east of the edifice. The<br />

tephra contain high SiO2 (73-75.5 wt %) glass and<br />

subordinate basaltic components, and each<br />

represents a distinct magma batch that can be<br />

fingerprinted. They form two temporal trends<br />

toward less evolved magma compositions,<br />

punctuated by a large caldera-forming event at 36<br />

ka. Minor tephra dispersal is also recorded at 17.7<br />

ka, 25 ka, 35 ka and pre-50 ka. The historically<br />

50 th <strong>Kaikoura</strong>05 -78- <strong>Kaikoura</strong> <strong>2005</strong>

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