Publication Name: Second South-Eastern Australia Oil Exploration Symposium - Technical Papers
Authors: P. G. Purcell
Date Published: December 1986
Number of Pages: 23
Reference Type: Book Section
Abstract:
Cretaceous-Lower Tertiary coal measures in west central New Zealand include the Pororari Group (Albian), the Paparoa Group (Maastrichtian-Paleocene), the Pakawau Group (Maastrichtian-Eocene) and the Brunner Coal Measures and Kapuni Group (EoceneEarly Oligocene). These sediments were deposited in a major rift complex, dominated by half-graben basins, and forming part of the extensive rift systems which subdivided the south-eastern Gondwana continent. Recent tectonism has created a very different structural 'signature' for the New Zealand basins. Commencing in Late Miocene time and reaching a peak in the Pleistocene, compressional forces associated with the Kaikoura orogeny caused reverse movement of the basin bounding faults, and huge anticlines developed above the coal basin depositional axes. These structures form sharply dissected ranges through onshore Westland and Nelson, South Island; their substructure is clearly revealed by seismic profiles in the offshore area.