NEW ZEALAND'S GEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS

Strip away New Zealand's towns, farms, trees and soil.

Peel back the blanket of the last 100 million years of
volcanic deposits and soft rocks.

What is left are hard and crystalline rocks, the country's

geological foundations on which everything else has
been constructed. But even these basement rocks are
just a thin, cold crust floating on the Earth's hot mantle.

New Zealand's geological origins go back nearly 600

million years. Since then, movements between the www.gns.cri.nz
Gondwanaland supercontinent and Pacific Ocean
crust have led to drastic changes in the region's size,
shape and position.

Investigations of this ancient, four-dimensional, still-

moving jigsaw puzzle reveal how New Zealand's
geological foundations have influenced the
development of today's natural resources, hazards
and environment.

SEDIMENTARY AND
ND VOLCANIC
OLCANIC
CANIC
C ROCKS
Northland and East Coast
ast Allochthons
ons

Morrinsville-Manaia
anaia Hill-Waioeka
l-Waioeka ssemblage
ioeka assemblage
(Waipa Supergroup)
roup)
Eastern

Torlesse
rlesse Composite
Terrane
rrane (eastern NZ)

Hunua-Bay of Islands
slands
dss Terrane
ne Pahau

Caples Terrane
e Rakaia
Province

Maitai Terrane
ne
Murihiku Terrane
Brook Street Terrane
errane
e
Province
Western

Takaka Terrane
e
vince
stern

Buller Terrane

KS
PLUTONIC ROCKS
Median Batholith
ith
Karamea, Paparoa
aroa and
d
Hohonu Batholiths
liths

CKS
KS
METAMORPHIC ROCKSS AND
RPRINTS
NTS
TS
TECTONIC OVERPRINTS

Esk Head and Whakatane

katane
tane Mélanges
es

Haast Schist

Gneiss

CHANGES IN SHAPE:
the situation 100 million years ago

km
d
an
sl
en
ue
Q

Pacific

oceanic
smania

LT
U crust
FA
Ta

E
IN Gondwanaland
LP
A continental

crust

T
S
U Antarctic
a
R E
C L
T
N
A
M

CHANGES IN TIME: durations of geological activity

0
Cenozoic
Covering blanket of young sediments and lavas

Nthland
time (millions of years ago)

Mesozoic

Alloch

Waipa Supergroup
Terrane
Median Batholith

Pahau
Batholiths
Other

Murihiku
Terrane

Hunua- BOI

200
Terrane
Terrane
Caples

Terrane
Rakaia

Maitai
Street
Brook
Paleozoic

400
Terrane
Terrane

Takaka
Buller

Pre-
Cambrian WESTERN EASTERN NEW ZEALAND
600 NEW ZEALAND

0
Cross Poster by Nick Mortimer and Belinda Smith Lyttle
Section
depth 20 Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Dunedin
below n.mortimer@gns.cri.nz
surface November 2001
(km)
40