Sedimentation on the continental terrace around New Zealand: A review

Abstract

The New Zealand continental terrace is mantled mainly by terrigenous and biogenic sediments associated with subordinate but locally important authigenic, volcanogenic and residual components. Modern terrigenous sands and muds prevail off Westland and Hawkes Bay—Wairarapa where tectonically rising landmasses, several major rivers and few coastal sediment traps ensure deliverance of much sediment to the terrace. Relict terrigenous sands and gravels typically occur in zones where modern sedimentation is low like the middle and outer continental shelf off Otago—Canterbury and Waikato—Taranaki. Relict sediments are commonly associated with biogenic sands and gravels which also dominate the terrigenous-starved shelves around northernmost and southernmost New Zealand, and much of the continental slope. Shelf biogenic components are mainly molluscan, bryozoan and foraminiferal clasts, whereas on the slope foraminifers and calcareous nannoplankton prevail. Both glauconite, the main authigenic component, and residual sediments occur on those shelves and upper slopes receiving little modern terrigenous sediment. Volcanogenic grains are prominent in sediments on the eastern terrace marginal to the Central Volcanic Region of the North Island. Typically, terrigenous shelf sediments off the North Island and northeast South Island have been reworked from older sediments or derived directly from volcanic rocks or both. Around the remainder of the South Island a metamorphic and plutonic-derived assemblage prevails. Sediment dispersal is along the shelf primarily under the influence of storm-driven and tidal currents with semi-permanent ocean currents having little effect. Beyond the shelf, dispersal appears to be mainly downslope, partly through redepositional mechanisms including gravity slumps and turbidity currents.