New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics abstracts
Geology of the Permian Kuriwao Group, Murihiku Terrane,
Southland, New Zealand
H. J. CAMPBELL1
N. MORTIMER2
J. I. RAINE1
1Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences
P.O. Box 30 368
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
2Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences
Private Bag 1930
Dunedin, New Zealand
With an appendix
Plant microfossils and macrofossils of Kuriwao and Wairuna Peak Groups:
correlation with Australian and New Zealand sequences
J. I. RAINE
Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences
P.O. Box 30 368
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Abstract Kuriwao Group rocks form a small inlier (5 <->
2 km) of calcareous and volcaniclastic Permian rocks in Southland, surrounded
by Triassic and Jurassic Murihiku Supergroup. Previously reported Kuriwao Group
field relationships, macrofauna, leaf fossils, and palynoflora have been
re-examined and interpretations are made of these and new data. A Late Permian
age for sandstones and limestones of the Kuriwao Group is confirmed and no
evidence is found that the limestones are olistoliths. Field relationships and
palynological data suggest that Early-Middle Triassic Wairuna Peak Group
(Murihiku Supergroup) strata lie in conformable sedimentary contact on the
Kuriwao Group. The petrological composition of Kuriwao Group sandstones closely
resembles quartz-poor sandstones in overlying Wairuna Peak Group and differs
from broadly coeval Permian sandstones in the Brook Street and Maitai Terranes.
Kuriwao Group should be regarded as part of the Murihiku tectonostratigraphic
terrane. With the age of Murihiku Terrane extending back into the Permian, some
120 m.y. of geological history are represented in an aggregate thickness of c.
16 km of little-deformed strata, although not in any one section. Permian rocks
are now known from seven New Zealand terranes.
Keywords Permian; Triassic; lithostratigraphy; Kuriwao Group;
Murihiku Supergroup; biostratigraphy; palynology; petrology; geochemistry;
tectonics; Murihiku Terrane; Southland; New Zealand; New Caledonia
New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 2001, Vol. 44:
485-500
0024-8306/01/4404-0485 $7.00/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
2001
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (4087K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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