Identification and significance of a late Pleistocene tephra in Canterbury district,South Island,New Zealand |
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| Authors: | BP Kohn |
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| Institution: | Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel |
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| Abstract: | A rhyolitic ash 4 to 8 cm thick is well preserved within a thick loess unit in a coastal section 2 km long near Teviotdale, Canterbury district, South Island, New Zealand. The ash (informally named Tiromoana ash) contains fresh glass shards which give a fission-track age of 20,300 ± 7100 yr B.P. The only possible source for such a tephra with this age range is from Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ), North Island, some 550 km north of Teviotdale. Within the time span ca. 15,000 to 42,000 yr B.P. five widespread and voluminous rhyolitic tephras (viz. Rerewhakaaitu Ash, Rotoehu Ash, Kawakawa Tephra, Omataroa Tephra, and Mangaone Tephra) were erupted from TVZ. On the basis of the fission-track age, ferromagnesian mineralogy, and electron-microprobe analyses of glass shards and titanomagnetites from Tiromoana ash and the five possible correlatives listed above, Tiromoana ash is correlated with Kawakawa Tephra (dated by 14C at ca. 20,000 yr B.P.). This is the only known occurrence to date of Kawakawa Tephra in the South Island. Its preservation is attributed to special site conditions (low precipitation and minimal sheet erosion) leeward of a prominent terrace. The identification of the ash at Teviotdale as Kawakawa Tephra supports recently revised age assignments for the upper loess sheet in Canterbury. Moreover, it implies that loess enclosing Kawakawa Tephra in nonglaciated districts of southern North Island and Taupo Volcanic Zone is a correlative. |
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