Late quaternary dune sands and associated deposits near Aotea and Kawhia Harbours, north island, New zealand

The subduction zone under the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand comprises, from east to west, a frontal wedge, a fore-arc basin, uplifted basement forming the arc and the Central Volcanic Region. Reconstructions of the plate boundary zone for the Cainozoic from seafloor spreading data require the fore-arc basin to have rotated through 60° in the last 20 Ma which is confirmed by palaeomagnetic declination studies. Estimates of shear strain from geodetic data show that the fore-arc basin is rotating today and that it is under extension in the direction normal to the trend of the plate boundary zone. The extension is apparently achieved by normal faulting. Estimates of the amount of sediments accreted to the subduction zone exceed the volume of the frontal wedge: underplating by the excess sediments is suggested to be the cause of late Quaternary uplift of the fore-arc basin. Low-temperature—high-pressure metamorphism may therefore be occurring at depth on the east coast and high-temperature—low-pressure metamorphism is probable in the Central Volcanic Region. The North Island of New Zealand is therefore a likely setting for a paired metamorphic belt in the making.

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Post-depositional reddening of late Quaternary coastal dune sands, north-eastern Australia

Geological Society London Special Publications ◽

10.1144/gsl.sp.1983.011.01.13 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 117-129 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

K. Pye

Keyword(s):

Late Quaternary ◽

Coastal Dune ◽

Dune Sands ◽

Eastern Australia ◽

North Eastern

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Textural and compositional controls on modern beach and dune sands, New Zealand

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms ◽

10.1002/esp.1403 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 366-389 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

J. J. Kasper-Zubillaga ◽

G. Ortiz-Zamora ◽

W. W. Dickinson ◽

J. Urrutia-Fucugauchi ◽

A. M. Soler-Arechalde

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Dune Sands

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Synoptic climate change as a driver of late Quaternary glaciations in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere

Climate of the Past ◽

10.5194/cp-2-11-2006 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 11-19 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

H. Rother ◽

J. Shulmeister

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Southern Hemisphere ◽

Large Scale ◽

Late Quaternary ◽

Synoptic Climatology ◽

Balance Model ◽

Last Glacial ◽

Regional Flow ◽

Quaternary Glaciations ◽

The Last Glacial

Abstract. The relative timing of late Quaternary glacial advances in mid-latitude (40-55° S) mountain belts of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) has become a critical focus in the debate on global climate teleconnections. On the basis of glacial data from New Zealand (NZ) and southern South America it has been argued that interhemispheric synchrony or asynchrony of Quaternary glacial events is due to Northern Hemisphere (NH) forcing of SH climate through either the ocean or atmosphere systems. Here we present a glacial snow-mass balance model that demonstrates that large scale glaciation in the temperate and hyperhumid Southern Alps of New Zealand can be generated with moderate cooling. This is because the rapid conversion of precipitation from rainfall to snowfall drives massive ice accumulation at small thermal changes (1-4°C). Our model is consistent with recent paleo-environmental reconstructions showing that glacial advances in New Zealand during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Last Glacial Interglacial Transition (LGIT) occurred under very moderate cooling. We suggest that such moderate cooling could be generated by changes in synoptic climatology, specifically through enhanced regional flow of moist westerly air masses. Our results imply that NH climate forcing may not have been the exclusive driver of Quaternary glaciations in New Zealand and that synoptic style climate variations are a better explanation for at least some late Quaternary glacial events, in particular during the LGIT (e.g. Younger Dryas and/or Antarctic Cold Reversal).

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