scholarly journals Early Miocene Thrust Tectonics on Raukumara Peninsula, Northeastern New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Geoffrey Jonathan Rait

<p>Raukumara Peninsula lies at the northeastern end of the East Coast Deformed Belt, a province of deformed Late Mesozoic-Late Cenozoic rocks on the eastern edges of the North Island and northern South Island of New Zealand. Late Cenozoic deformation in this province is associated with westward subduction of the Pacific Plate, which started at about the beginning of the Miocene. Early Miocene tectonism on Raukumara Peninsula took place in a hitherto little-known thrust belt, the East Coast Allochthon. The configuration, evolution and origin of this thrust belt are the subjects of this thesis. The thrust belt extends 110 km from the thrust front in the southwest to the northeastern tip of Raukumara Peninsula. Internal structures strike northwest, perpendicular to the present trend of the continental margin but parallel to the Early Miocene trend suggested by plate reconstructions and paleomagnetic studies. The structure and kinematic evolution of the thrust belt were investigated by detailed mapping of three key areas in its central part and by analysis of previous work throughout the region. Gross differences in structure lead to the division of the belt into three zones: southern, central and northern. Deformation in the southern and central zones (the southwestern two-thirds of the system) was thin-skinned, involving southwestward transport of thrust sheets above a decollement horizon at the top of the Maastrichtian-Paleocene Whangai Formation. The decollement is exposed in the northwest due to southeastward tilting accompanying post-Miocene uplift of the Raukumara Range. Deformation in the northern zone involved reactivations of northeast-directed Cretaceous thrusts as well as southwestward emplacement of allochthonous sheets. Stratigraphic relationships show that thrusting took place during = 6 m.y. in the earliest Miocene. The 18 km wide southern zone is an emergent imbricate fan of rocks detached from above the Whangai Formation in a piggy-back sequence and transported less than about 18 km at rates of 2.6-3.6 mm/yr (plus-minus 20%-100%). The central and northern zones include rocks older than Whangai Formation. The sheets of the central zone and the southwest-directed sheets of the northern zone make up three major allochthonous units: the Waitahaia allochthon, consisting predominantly of mid-Cretaceous flysch above the Waitahaia Fault and equivalent structures, at the bottom of the thrust pile; the Te Rata allochthon, of Late Cretaceous-Early Tertiary continental margin sediments above the Te Rata Thrust, in the middle; and the Matakaoa sheet, an ophiolite body of mid-Cretaceous-Eocene basaltic and pelagic sedimentary rocks, at the top and back of the thrust belt. The Waitahaia allochthon was emplaced first and was subsequently breached by the Te Rata Thrust. The mid-Cretaceous rocks of the Waitahaia allochthon are mostly overturned, a result of the southwest-directed Early Miocene thrusting overprinting a Cretaceous structure of predominantly southwestward dips. The Te Rata allochthon comprises a complex pile of thrust sheets and slices with a general older-on-younger stacking order but with common reversals. Synorogenic sedimentary rocks occur within it. The complexity of internal structure of these two allochthons suggests they have undergone more than the 50% shortening estimated for the southern zone. The minimum southwestward displacement of the Te Rata allochthon is 60 km. The minimum displacements of the Waitahaia and Matakaoa allochthons are 55-195 km and 115-530 km respectively, depending on whether the Te Rata allochthon originally lay in front of the original position of the Waitahaia allochthon or was originally the upper part of the Waitahaia allochthon, and on the amounts of internal shortening of the allochthons. Over the = 6 m.y. period of thrusting, these estimates imply displacement rates for the Matakaoa sheet of 19-88 mm/yr. The average plate convergence rate at East Cape for the period 36-20 Ma is estimated at 25-30 mm/yr; the rate for the Early Miocene-- when subduction was active--may have been faster. Reasonable displacement rates for the Matakaoa sheet would result if the Te Rata allochthon was originally the upper part of the Waitahaia allochthon and if both allochthons have been shortened somewhat less than 50%. The emplacement mechanism of the Matakaoa ophiolite is elucidated by comparison with Northland, northwest along strike from Raukumara Peninsula, onto which correlative rocks were emplaced at the same time. The thinness of the Northland ophiolite bodies, their composition of rocks typical of the uppermost levels of oceanic crust, and the start of andesitic volcanism accompanying their obduction show that they were emplaced as a thin flake of oceanic crust which peeled off the downgoing slab during the inception of southwestward subduction. The reason the ophiolites were initially peeled from the slab is probably that their upper levels prograded southwestward over sediments of the Northland-Raukumara continental margin. In such a situation, initial compression would have led to formation of a northeast-dipping thrust at the volcanic/sediment interface; this thrust would then have propagated back into the downgoing plate with continued convergence, allowing the ophiolites to climb up the continental slope pushing the allochthonous sedimentary sheets ahead of them.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Geoffrey Jonathan Rait

<p>Raukumara Peninsula lies at the northeastern end of the East Coast Deformed Belt, a province of deformed Late Mesozoic-Late Cenozoic rocks on the eastern edges of the North Island and northern South Island of New Zealand. Late Cenozoic deformation in this province is associated with westward subduction of the Pacific Plate, which started at about the beginning of the Miocene. Early Miocene tectonism on Raukumara Peninsula took place in a hitherto little-known thrust belt, the East Coast Allochthon. The configuration, evolution and origin of this thrust belt are the subjects of this thesis. The thrust belt extends 110 km from the thrust front in the southwest to the northeastern tip of Raukumara Peninsula. Internal structures strike northwest, perpendicular to the present trend of the continental margin but parallel to the Early Miocene trend suggested by plate reconstructions and paleomagnetic studies. The structure and kinematic evolution of the thrust belt were investigated by detailed mapping of three key areas in its central part and by analysis of previous work throughout the region. Gross differences in structure lead to the division of the belt into three zones: southern, central and northern. Deformation in the southern and central zones (the southwestern two-thirds of the system) was thin-skinned, involving southwestward transport of thrust sheets above a decollement horizon at the top of the Maastrichtian-Paleocene Whangai Formation. The decollement is exposed in the northwest due to southeastward tilting accompanying post-Miocene uplift of the Raukumara Range. Deformation in the northern zone involved reactivations of northeast-directed Cretaceous thrusts as well as southwestward emplacement of allochthonous sheets. Stratigraphic relationships show that thrusting took place during = 6 m.y. in the earliest Miocene. The 18 km wide southern zone is an emergent imbricate fan of rocks detached from above the Whangai Formation in a piggy-back sequence and transported less than about 18 km at rates of 2.6-3.6 mm/yr (plus-minus 20%-100%). The central and northern zones include rocks older than Whangai Formation. The sheets of the central zone and the southwest-directed sheets of the northern zone make up three major allochthonous units: the Waitahaia allochthon, consisting predominantly of mid-Cretaceous flysch above the Waitahaia Fault and equivalent structures, at the bottom of the thrust pile; the Te Rata allochthon, of Late Cretaceous-Early Tertiary continental margin sediments above the Te Rata Thrust, in the middle; and the Matakaoa sheet, an ophiolite body of mid-Cretaceous-Eocene basaltic and pelagic sedimentary rocks, at the top and back of the thrust belt. The Waitahaia allochthon was emplaced first and was subsequently breached by the Te Rata Thrust. The mid-Cretaceous rocks of the Waitahaia allochthon are mostly overturned, a result of the southwest-directed Early Miocene thrusting overprinting a Cretaceous structure of predominantly southwestward dips. The Te Rata allochthon comprises a complex pile of thrust sheets and slices with a general older-on-younger stacking order but with common reversals. Synorogenic sedimentary rocks occur within it. The complexity of internal structure of these two allochthons suggests they have undergone more than the 50% shortening estimated for the southern zone. The minimum southwestward displacement of the Te Rata allochthon is 60 km. The minimum displacements of the Waitahaia and Matakaoa allochthons are 55-195 km and 115-530 km respectively, depending on whether the Te Rata allochthon originally lay in front of the original position of the Waitahaia allochthon or was originally the upper part of the Waitahaia allochthon, and on the amounts of internal shortening of the allochthons. Over the = 6 m.y. period of thrusting, these estimates imply displacement rates for the Matakaoa sheet of 19-88 mm/yr. The average plate convergence rate at East Cape for the period 36-20 Ma is estimated at 25-30 mm/yr; the rate for the Early Miocene-- when subduction was active--may have been faster. Reasonable displacement rates for the Matakaoa sheet would result if the Te Rata allochthon was originally the upper part of the Waitahaia allochthon and if both allochthons have been shortened somewhat less than 50%. The emplacement mechanism of the Matakaoa ophiolite is elucidated by comparison with Northland, northwest along strike from Raukumara Peninsula, onto which correlative rocks were emplaced at the same time. The thinness of the Northland ophiolite bodies, their composition of rocks typical of the uppermost levels of oceanic crust, and the start of andesitic volcanism accompanying their obduction show that they were emplaced as a thin flake of oceanic crust which peeled off the downgoing slab during the inception of southwestward subduction. The reason the ophiolites were initially peeled from the slab is probably that their upper levels prograded southwestward over sediments of the Northland-Raukumara continental margin. In such a situation, initial compression would have led to formation of a northeast-dipping thrust at the volcanic/sediment interface; this thrust would then have propagated back into the downgoing plate with continued convergence, allowing the ophiolites to climb up the continental slope pushing the allochthonous sedimentary sheets ahead of them.</p>


GeoArabia ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-174
Author(s):  
Michael P. Searle ◽  
Alan G. Cherry ◽  
Mohammed Y. Ali ◽  
David J.W. Cooper

ABSTRACT The tectonics of the Musandam Peninsula in northern Oman shows a transition between the Late Cretaceous ophiolite emplacement related tectonics recorded along the Oman Mountains and Dibba Zone to the SE and the Late Cenozoic continent-continent collision tectonics along the Zagros Mountains in Iran to the northwest. Three stages in the continental collision process have been recognized. Stage one involves the emplacement of the Semail Ophiolite from NE to SW onto the Mid-Permian–Mesozoic passive continental margin of Arabia. The Semail Ophiolite shows a lower ocean ridge axis suite of gabbros, tonalites, trondhjemites and lavas (Geotimes V1 unit) dated by U-Pb zircon between 96.4–95.4 Ma overlain by a post-ridge suite including island-arc related volcanics including boninites formed between 95.4–94.7 Ma (Lasail, V2 unit). The ophiolite obduction process began at 96 Ma with subduction of Triassic–Jurassic oceanic crust to depths of &gt; 40 km to form the amphibolite/granulite facies metamorphic sole along an ENE-dipping subduction zone. U-Pb ages of partial melts in the sole amphibolites (95.6– 94.5 Ma) overlap precisely in age with the ophiolite crustal sequence, implying that subduction was occurring at the same time as the ophiolite was forming. The ophiolite, together with the underlying Haybi and Hawasina thrust sheets, were thrust southwest on top of the Permian–Mesozoic shelf carbonate sequence during the Late Cenomanian–Campanian. Subduction ended as unsubductable cherts and limestones (Oman Exotics) jammed at depths of 25–30 km. The Bani Hamid quartzites and calc-silicates associated with amphibolites derived from alkali basalt show high-temperature granulite facies mineral assemblages and represent lower crust material exhumed by late-stage out-of-sequence thrusting. Ophiolite obduction ended at ca. 70 Ma (Maastrichtian) with deposition of shallow-marine limestones transgressing all underlying thrust sheets. Stable shallow-marine conditions followed for at least 30 million years (from 65–35 Ma) along the WSW and ENE flanks of the mountain belt. Stage two occurred during the Late Oligocene–Early Miocene when a second phase of compression occurred in Musandam as the Arabian Plate began to collide with the Iran-western Makran continental margin. The Middle Permian to Cenomanian shelf carbonates, up to 4 km thick, together with pre-Permian basement rocks were thrust westwards along the Hagab Thrust for a minimum of 15 km. Early Miocene out-of-sequence thrusts cut through the shelf carbonates and overlying Pabdeh foreland basin in the subsurface offshore Ras al Khaimah and Musandam. This phase of crustal compression followed deposition of the Eocene Dammam and Oligocene Asmari formations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but ended by the mid-Miocene as thrust tip lines are all truncated along a regional unconformity at the base of the Upper Miocene Mishan Formation. The Oligocene–Early Miocene culmination of Musandam and late Cenozoic folding along the UAE foreland marks the initiation of the collision of Arabia with Central Iran in the Strait of Hormuz region. Stage three involved collision of Arabia and the Central Iran Plate during the Pliocene, with ca. 50 km of NE-SW shortening across the Zagros Fold Belt. Related deformation in the Musandam Peninsula is largely limited to north and eastward tilting of the peninsula to create a deeply indented coastline of drowned valleys (rias).


1977 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 346-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Jamieson

The Hare Bay Allochthon of northwestern Newfoundland consists of a series of sedimentary, volcanic, metamorphic, and ultramafic rocks which was emplaced over a Cambro-Ordovician continental margin as several thrust sheets. It probably represents a continental margin sequence overridden by oceanic crust and upper mantle. The Partridge Point gabbro, Cape Onion volcanics, and Ireland Point Volcanics, which now occur in the Maiden Point, Cape Onion, and St. Anthony tectonic slices respectively, appear to be closely related on petrographic and chemical grounds. Olivine, titanaugite, kaersutite, and plagioclase indicate that these rocks formed as a single suite of hydrous alkali basalts, possibly as part of a seamount near a continental margin. This relationship provides a link between the lower sedimentary and the upper igneous-metamorphic structural slices of the allochthon and implies that most of the transported rocks in the Hare Bay area evolved in close proximity to each other.


2000 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
J.B. Frederick ◽  
E.J. Davies ◽  
P.G. Smith ◽  
D. Spancers ◽  
T.J. Williams

The Westech-Orion Joint Venture holds onshore Petroleum Exploration Permit 38329 and offshore PEPs 38325, 38326 and 38333 in the East Coast Basin, New Zealand. The Joint Venture holds 24,117 km2 covering Hawkes Bay and the Wairarapa shelf.The Westech-Orion Joint Venture has drilled six exploratory wells and five appraisal wells in the onshore East Coast Basin over a two year period. All wells encountered significant gas shows, with two wells discovering hydrocarbons in potentially commercial volumes. Each well was drilled on the crest of a seismically mapped structure, characterised by asymmetric folding over a northwest dipping thrust fault.Prior to this drilling program, the reservoir potential of the Wairoa area was inferred to be dominated by turbidite sandstones of the Tunanui and Makaretu formations (Mid-Late Miocene). The new wells show that the Mid Miocene and parts of the Early and Late Miocene pinch out across the 'Wairoa High'.One of the primary onshore reservoirs is the Kauhauroa Limestone (Early Miocene), a bryozoan-dominated, tightly packed and cemented limestone with dominantly fracture porosity. The other primary reservoir is the Tunanui Sandstone (Mid Miocene), which in well intersections to date comprises medium-thickly bedded sandstone, with net sand typically 40%. The sands have high lithic content, and are moderately sorted and subangular-subrounded.Abnormally high formation pressures were encountered in all wells, ranging up to 3,400 psi at 1,000 m. Crestal pressure gradients commonly exceed 70% of the lithostatic pressure gradient, despite the relative proximity to outcrop. The overpressure may reflect relatively young uplift of fossil pressures, with insufficient time for pressure equilibration within a generally overpressured system.The prospectivity of the area has been highgraded by recent maturation and reservoir studies in Hawkes Bay and by gas discoveries in Westech-Orion wells onshore northern Hawkes Bay. Maturation studies identified nine kitchen areas with oil migration commencing in the Late Miocene. Seismic stratigraphy and correlation with onshore wells identified offshore submarine fan deposits of Eocene, Early Miocene, Mid Miocene and Pliocene age.A 594 km2 exploration 3D seismic survey was acquired in Hawke Bay in April 1999, and 685 km of 2D seismic were acquired in March 2000. Preliminary interpretation of the 3D survey has yielded five prospects, each covering 20–90 km2. One prospect is a lowstand fan identified by stacked mounding and bidirectional downlap, correlated with the onshore Mid Miocene Tunanui Sandstone. High amplitude seismic events of Mid-Late Miocene ages are inferred to be pulses of submarine fan development, in places associated with direct hydrocarbon indicators (DHIs). High amplitude seismic events in the Pliocene include a package of high amplitude seismic reflectors interpreted as structurally trapped DHI truncated by a major unconformity.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Michael Robert Johnston

<p>The Tinui District is assumed to be typical of the more deformed part of the New Zealand Mobile Belt. It contains an unusually complete stratigraphic record, rocks representing most stages from Upper Jurassic to Recent being present. Although the rocks are strongly deformed, the complex diapiric structures that occur in the northeast of the mobile belt are absent. The stratigraphy is described in terms of formations which are then used to infer the paleogeography for eight periods of time. An attempt is made to treat the structure according to its development with time. The main conclusion is that there was a change in the strike of the fold axes and in the sense of movement of the faults. Strong folds, striking approximately northeast, are Paleocene in age and weak folds, striking approximately north, are post-Miocene. There are two fault trends, one NNE and the other ENE. The ENE striking faults were dominant in the Early Cenozoic and the NNE striking faults were dominant in the Late Cenozoic. The sense of movement on the NNE faults changed from sinistral to dextral. The change in the direction of the axes and in the sense of movement on the faults can be expressed as a change in the direction of maximum horizontal shortening, which is inferred to have changed with time. It is also found that the rates of tilting, and probably faulting, have not been constant with time, but occurred as bursts (disturbances) in the Paleocene, Early Miocene Late Pliocene, and Late Quaternary. The Mesozoic part of the geological history of the Tinui District is scrappy and far less complete than the Cenozoic part. In order to place the Tinui District in a broader setting, the central part of the New Zealand landmass in the Cenozoic, called the New Zealand Mobile Belt, is discussed in some detail. The mobile belt consists of fault blocks which form a geanticline along the New Zealand landmass and a geosynclinal trough between the east coast and the Hikurangi Trench. It is shown that a clear distinction has to be made between tilting and uplift. A main feature of the New Zealand Mobile Belt is the dextral faulting, on major NNE striking faults, in the Late Cenozoic. A major reversal in the direction of maximum horizontal shortening was found in the Tinui District to have taken place at the beginning of the Miocene or in the Oligocene. The reversal indicates that the dextral faulting of the New Zealand Mobile Belt may have started at that time, and that earlier strike-slip movement had been sinistral. This conclusion contradicts existing reconstructions of the New Zealand landmass with time, and a more complex reconstruction is required to satisfy the tectonics of the Tinui District.</p>


2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 267 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. MOUNTRAKIS ◽  
E. THOMAIDOU ◽  
N. ZOUROS ◽  
A. KILIAS

In Lesvos Island, the ophiolites and the metamorphic sole are emplaced onto the Permo-Triassic continental margin rocks. New field data on the Tertiary kinematics distinguished three successive tectonic events that affected the Lesvos ophiolites and sole. The Dl compressional event took place in Late Eocene - Early Oligocene and produced several thrust sheets and their stacking over the continental margin. The thickening of the crust after the Dl event, was followed by an important extensional tectonic event (D2) in semi-ductile conditions in Oligocene-Early Miocene times, which produced the uplift process of the orogen and the lateral rejection of the tectonic nappes through large extensional semi-ductile faults of low angle (detachment faults) and caused the exhumation of the underlying continental margin rocks in the form of a tectonic window. This extensional tectonic event led to the thinning of the crust in the wider area of Lesvos and probably caused the Early Miocene volcanic activity. The last D3 extensional tectonic event, took place in brittle conditions and represents the neotectonic regime in Late Miocene-Recent times.


1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 746-764 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. St-Onge ◽  
S. B. Lucas ◽  
R. R. Parrish

The tectonostratigraphic record of the Ungava orogen contains evidence for the interaction of divergent, transform, and convergent plate boundaries over a > 0.2 Ga period in the Early Proterozoic. Three principal tectonic domains are recognized: (1) autochthonous basement plutonic and supracrustal rocks of Archean age; (2) autochthonous and allochthonous sedimentary and volcanic units associated with a ca. 1.99–1.92 Ga rift-to-drift margin; and (3) "suspect' ' crustal components of a ca. 2.00 Ga ophiolite and ca. 1.90–1.83 Ga island-arc terrane. Domain 1 is the stratigraphic or structural basement to domains 2 and 3. Field relationships indicate that domain 2 units were accumulated on or near domain 1, whereas no tectonostratigraphic linkages are known between domain 3 and the others. Accumulation of continent-derived sedimentary rocks, continental tholeiites, komatiitic basalts, and mafic lavas equivalent to modern normal mid-oceanic ridge basalts (n-MORB's) in domain 2 is interpreted as recording continental rifting leading to the possible formation of oceanic crust. Pillowed basalts, sheeted dykes, and cumulate rocks suggest that the crustal portion of an ophiolite is preserved within domain 3. The ophiolite is interpreted as a "suspect" fragment of oceanic crust, which may represent an earlier rifted portion of domain 2, possibly juxtaposed by transform plate boundary motions. Within domain 3, calc-alkaline volcanic and plutonic units and sequences of volcanogenic and siliciclastic sedimentary rocks are thought to indicate the development of a magmatic arc and fore-arc basin and thus the establishment of a convergent plate boundary. The most internal lithotectonic packages in domain 3 are predominantly crystalline thrust sheets containing (i) an older intrusive suite, interpreted as the plutonic foundation of the magmatic arc, and (ii) younger plutons, interpreted as the result of a reversal in subduction polarity. The reversal may have followed attempted subduction of domains 1 and 2 beneath the upper-plate arc assemblage of domain 3.


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