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Banks Peninsula Volcano
The Banks Peninsula Volcano is an extinct volcanic complex to the east of Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island.Sewell 1986 While the volcano is highly eroded it still forms the majority of Banks Peninsula with a highest point of . It is a composite of two main eruptive centres one originating at Lyttelton Harbour, the other at Akaroa Harbour. The eruptions were predominantly basaltic, with associated andesite and trachytes, with minor rhyolite. The volcanic activity occurred in the Late Miocene and possibly extended into the Early Pliocene. There are four volcanic groups, all of which are within the Māui Supergroup.Mortimer et al. 2014 The Christchurch earthquakes led to rumors of a possible eruption, however, there is no known magma chamber beneath the volcano and there has not been any sign of volcanic activity in the last 5 million years. Origin and relationship to other volcanoes New Zealand's South Island has many extinct volcanic centres with no obvious tectonic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene followed the Oligocene and preceded the Pliocene. As Earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, the climate slowly cooled towards a series of ice ages. The Miocene boundaries are not marked by distinct global events but by regionally defined transitions from the warmer Oligocene to the cooler Pliocene Epoch. During the Early Miocene, Afro-Arabia collided with Eurasia, severing the connection between the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans, and allowing the interchange of fauna between Eurasia and Africa, including the dispersal of proboscideans and Ape, hominoids into Eurasia. During the late Miocene, the conn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stratigraphy Of New Zealand
This is a list of the geological unit, units into which the lithostratigraphy, rock succession of New Zealand is formally divided. As new geological relationships have been discovered new names have been proposed and others are made obsolete. Not all these changes have been universally adopted. This table is based on the 2014 New Zealand Stratigraphic Lexicon (Litho2014). However, obsolete names that are still in use and names postdating the lexicon are included if it aids in understanding. Names for particular rock units have two parts, a proper name which is almost always a geographic location where the rock is found and a hierarchical rank (e.g. Waitematā Harbour, Waitematā Group (stratigraphy), Group). This ranking system starts with individual 'beds' of rock which can be grouped into 'members', members are grouped into 'formations', formations into 'subgroups' then 'groups'. In New Zealand, groups are further combined into 'supergroups' or for basement rocks into terrane ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asthenosphere
The asthenosphere () is the mechanically weak and ductile region of the upper mantle of Earth. It lies below the lithosphere, at a depth between c. below the surface, and extends as deep as . However, the lower boundary of the asthenosphere is not well defined. The asthenosphere is almost solid, but a slight amount of melting (less than 0.1% of the rock) contributes to its mechanical weakness. More extensive decompression melting of the asthenosphere takes place where it wells upwards, and this is the most important source of magma on Earth. It is the source of mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) and of some magmas that erupt above subduction zones or in regions of continental rifting. Characteristics The asthenosphere is a part of the upper mantle just below the lithosphere that is involved in plate tectonic movement and isostatic adjustments. It is composed of peridotite, a rock containing mostly the minerals olivine and pyroxene. The lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. Formerly called the Sandwich Islands by Europeans, the present name for the archipelago is derived from the name of its largest island, Hawaii. The archipelago sits on the Pacific Plate. The islands are exposed peaks of a great undersea mountain range known as the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain, formed by volcano, volcanic activity over the Hawaiian hotspot. The islands are about from the nearest continent and are part of the Polynesia subregion of Oceania. The U.S. state of Hawaii occupies the archipelago almost in its entirety (including the mostly uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands), with the sole exception of Midway Atoll (a United States Minor Outlying Island). Hawaii is the only U.S. state that is sit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lithosphere
A lithosphere () is the rigid, outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the lithospheric mantle, the topmost portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of up to thousands of years or more. The crust and upper mantle are distinguished on the basis of chemistry and mineralogy. Earth's lithosphere Earth's lithosphere, which constitutes the hard and rigid outer vertical layer of the Earth, includes the crust and the lithospheric mantle (or mantle lithosphere), the uppermost part of the mantle that is not convecting. The layer below the lithosphere is called the asthenosphere, which is the weaker, hotter, and deeper part of the upper mantle that is able to convect. The lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary is defined by a difference in response to stress. The lithosphere remains rigid for very long periods of geologic time in which it deforms elastically and through brittle f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dunedin Volcanic Group
The Dunedin volcanic group is a volcanic group that covers over of Otago in the South Island of New Zealand. It is a recent reclassification of the group previously known as the Waiareka-Deborah volcanic field due to common magma melt ancestries of the Dunedin Volcano with the overlapping alkali basaltic monogenetic volcanic field. Excluded from the group are a group of volcanics of different composition (sub-alkaline basalt to basaltic andesite) and older age (36.4 to 27.6 million years ago) near Oamaru, which have been given the name previously used for the Dunedin group. The older Waiareka-Deborah volcanic field overlaps the new Dunedin volcanic group geographically; though Dunedin Volcano has been well studied from the 1880s since New Zealand's first school of geology was established at the University of Otago, detailed studies of north-central volcanoes such as the Crater near Middlemarch were done much later, and high-quality composition studies still need to be done to p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dunedin Volcano
The Dunedin Volcano is an extensively eroded multi-vent shield volcano that was active between 16 and 10 million years ago. It originally extended from the modern city of Dunedin, New Zealand to Aramoana about 25 km away. Extensive erosion has occurred over the last 10 million years and Otago Harbour now fills the oldest parts of the volcano. The remnants of the volcano form the hills around Otago Harbour (including Mount Cargill, Flagstaff (Otago), Flagstaff, Saddle Hill (New Zealand), Saddle Hill, Signal Hill (New Zealand), Signal Hill, and Otago Peninsula). Geology Volcanism began in a shallow marine environment. The volcano became larger with flows of basalt and minor trachyte creating the bulk of the volcano. The total volume of eruptives has been estimated to be but there was a much larger intrusive component at . The final phase of eruptions are preserved as phonolite domes around Mount Cargill. Traces of the old Dunedin Volcano are best seen in the Dunedin Botan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands ( ; Moriori language, Moriori: , 'Misty Sun'; ) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island, administered as part of New Zealand, and consisting of about 10 islands within an approximate radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island, Pitt Island (''Rangiauria''). They include New Zealand's easternmost point, the Forty-Fours. Some of the islands, formerly cleared for farming, are now preserved as Protected areas of New Zealand, nature reserves to conservation in New Zealand, conserve some of the unique flora and fauna. The islands were uninhabited when the Moriori people arrived around 1500 CE and developed Nunuku-whenua, a peaceful way of life. In 1835, members of the Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama Māori iwi from the North Island of New Zealand invaded the islands and Moriori genocide, nearly exterminated the Moriori, slavery, enslaving the survivors. In the period of European colonisation, the New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canterbury, New Zealand
Canterbury () is a Regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand, located in the central-eastern South Island. The region covers an area of , making it the largest region in the country by area. It is home to a population of The region in its current form was established in 1989 during nationwide local government reforms. The Kaikōura District joined the region in 1992 following the abolition of the Nelson-Marlborough Regional Council. Christchurch, the South Island's largest city and the country's second-largest urban area, is the seat of the region and home to percent of the region's population. Other major towns and cities include Timaru, Ashburton, New Zealand, Ashburton, Rangiora and Rolleston, New Zealand, Rolleston. History Natural history The land, water, flora, and fauna of Canterbury has a long history, stretching from creation of the greywacke basement rocks that make up the Southern Alps to the arrival of the first humans. This history is linked to the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otago
Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government region. Its population was The name "Otago" is the local Māori language#South Island dialects, southern Māori dialect pronunciation of "Otakou, Ōtākou", the name of the Māori village near the entrance to Otago Harbour. The exact meaning of the term is disputed, with common translations being "isolated village" and "place of red earth", the latter referring to the reddish-ochre clay that is common in the area around Dunedin. "Otago" is also the old name of the European settlement on the harbour, established by the Weller Brothers in 1831, which lies close to Otakou. The upper harbour later became the focus of the Otago Association, an offshoot of the Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900), Free Church of Scotland, notable for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58See the 2014 version of the ICS geologic time scale million years ago (Ma). It is the second and most recent epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic, Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch. Prior to the 2009 revision of the geologic time scale, which placed the four most recent major glaciations entirely within the Pleistocene, the Pliocene also included the Gelasian Stage, which lasted from 2.59 to 1.81 Ma, and is now included in the Pleistocene. As with other older geologic periods, the Stratum, geological strata that define the start and end are well-identified but the exact dates of the start a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ninth and longest geological period of the entire Phanerozoic. The name is derived from the Latin , 'chalk', which is abundant in the latter half of the period. It is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation . The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, resulting in high Sea level#Local and eustatic, eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow Inland sea (geology), inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct marine reptiles, ammonites, and rudists, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. The world was largely ice-free, although there is some evidence of brief periods of glaciation during the cooler first half, and forests extended to the poles. Many of the dominant taxonomic gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
