Magnetic polarity stratigraphy of a Plio-Pleistocene marine sequence of North Island, New Zealand

Abstract

Thick sequences of relatively undisturbed Plio-Pleistocene sediments in the Wanganui Basin, North Island, New Zealand consist of well exposed silts, clayey silts, sandstones, rare limestones, and several tephras. Oriented specimens were collected from a section more than 2500 m thick and palaeomagnetic measurements were made using A.C. demagnetisations in fields up to 35 mT. With the aid of tephrochronology the age of the upper sequence is now well established and falls within the Matuyama epoch. The lower two-thirds of the section except for the basal 500 m is predominantly normally magnetised and is interpreted as a very extended sequence of the Gauss epoch. The lowest 500 m then represents the Gilbert epoch. The Plio-Pleistocene boundary, as defined at Vrica, Italy, falls within the upper part of the section studied, in the Upper Nukumaruan stage. For the first time a reliable correlation is made with the international boundary, using as intermediaries the palaeomagnetic and tephrostratigraphy of deep-sea cores from the southwest Pacific. As a result of the high deposition rate (of the order of 1.2 m/ky) and the apparent lack of unconformities, the temporal resolution is high; short-lived magnetic events are detected, especially in the lower Matuyama and upper Gauss epochs. These generally correlate well with events reported from other extended sections.