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Detrital zircon geochronology and sandstone provenance of basement Waipapa Terrane (Triassic–Cretaceous) and Cretaceous cover rocks (Northland Allochthon and Houhora Complex) in northern North Island, New Zealand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2012

C. J. ADAMS ,
N. MORTIMER ,
H. J. CAMPBELL  and
W. L. GRIFFIN
C. J. ADAMS
Affiliation:
GNS Science, Private Bag 1930 Dunedin 9054, New Zealand
N. MORTIMER
Affiliation:
GNS Science, Private Bag 1930 Dunedin 9054, New Zealand
H. J. CAMPBELL*
Affiliation:
GNS Science, PO Box 30368, Lower Hutt 5040, New Zealand
W. L. GRIFFIN
Affiliation:
ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems, and Key Centre for Geochemical Evolution and Metallogeny of Continents, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW 2109, Australia
*
†Author for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

Detrital zircon U–Pb ages are reported for 14 sandstones of mainly Cretaceous age from the Northland Allochthon, Houhora Complex and Waipapa Terrane of northern North Island, New Zealand. Results from the Waipapa Terrane samples, selected from sequences in the Bay of Plenty, Coromandel Peninsula and Great Barrier Island, show that deposition continued into late Early Cretaceous time and, as in the Torlesse Composite Terrane, finally waned at c. 110–114 Ma. Upper Lower Cretaceous and Upper Cretaceous sedimentary successions in the Houhora Complex and Northland Allochthon have dominant sediment sources derived from local, contemporary volcanism, with a minor older contribution from the Murihiku Terrane to the west. As in eastern North Island, upper Upper Cretaceous sandstones lack major Albian magmatic components and their sources are solely in the Murihiku Terrane, and possibly the Western Province. We propose a Cretaceous palaeogeographic model that invokes a recently extinct orogen and a partially submerged continental borderland, dissected by rivers supplying submarine fans.

Keywords

New ZealandCretaceousNorthlanddetrital zirconprovenancepalaeogeography
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 150 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 89 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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