New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics abstracts
Burnt Creek Formation and Late Cretaceous basin development in Marlborough,
New Zealand
JAMES S. CRAMPTON
Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences
P.O. Box 30 368
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
MALCOLM G. LAIRD
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch, New Zealand
Abstract Burnt Creek Formation is a Cretaceous sedimentary
unit that has been identified from a restricted geographic area southeast of
the Ouse Fault in the Coverham-Kekerengu valley region, Marlborough. It
comprises a fining-upwards succession of conglomerate, pebbly mudstone,
sandstone, sandstone-siltstone couplets, siltstone, and contorted beds. Coarser
beds are inferred to have been deposited by a range of submarine sediment
gravity-flow processes, in particular debris flows and turbidity currents, in
an outer neritic or upper bathyal environment. Burnt Creek Formation was
deposited during the Mangaotanean and Teratan ages (middle Turonian - early
Santonian). Older parts of the formation occupy a small (c. 1 km
across), east-west or northeast-southwest trending, asymmetric basin. They
record onlap of an incised valley or deposition adjacent to a synsedimentary
fault that was downthrown to the north.
The Ouse Fault is inferred to have been a major normal fault during the
Clarence Epoch (Albian-Cenomanian) and for at least part of the Raukumara Epoch
(Cenomanian-Santonian). Regional extension in Marlborough is suggested also by
the presence of Ngaterian (latest Albian - late Cenomanian) and probable
Teratan (early Coniacian - early Santonian) intraplate, alkaline basalts. In
the Miocene the Ouse Fault was reactivated as a reverse fault, and crustal
shortening of perhaps several kilometres juxtaposed the Cretaceous successions
now found on either side of the fault.
Keywords Burnt Creek Formation; Coniacian; Late Cretaceous;
Mangaotanean; Marlborough; New Zealand; Ouse Fault; paleogeography; Paton
Formation; Piripauan; Santonian; Teratan; Turonian
New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 1997, Vol. 40: 199-222
0028-8306/97/4002-0199 $7.00/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
1997
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (4541K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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