Recognition of the Kaweka Terrane in northern South Island, New Zealand: Preliminary evidence from Rb-Sr metamorphic and U-Pb detrital zircon ages

Abstract

Detrital zircon U-Pb ages and Rb-Sr metamorphic ages from low-grade Torlesse Supergroup metasedimentary rocks from North Canterbury and Marlborough provide preliminary evidence for a continuation of the Kaweka Terrane of the central North Island into the Torlesse Composite Terrane of the South Island. This would extend from the south side of the Wairau Fault in the upper Wairau River valley southwards to the Lake Tennyson and Lake Sumner areas, and as far as Hawarden. Rb-Sr ages indicate Jurassic metamorphism, 170 ± 24Ma, with initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios at that time 0.7073 ± 0.0007 i.e. similar to their North Island counterparts. These Kaweka Terrane rocks have detrital zircon ages that follow the distinctive pattern of the Torlesse rocks in general, i.e. substantial (> 30%) Permian-Triassic and Precambrian-Early Palaeozoic groupings, but they also have minor youngest age components c. 175-165 Ma which constrain a maximum Early-Middle Jurassic depositional age. In detail, significant, older zircon components are Late Permian-Early Triassic (260-240 Ma) and Late Triassic (220-210 Ma), but the Precambrian-Early Palaeozoic detrital zircon ages are more scattered. The Kaweka Terrane thus forms a linear belt (c. 500 km) along the length of the Torlesse Composite Terrane in both North and South Islands. In the South Island it coincides with the Esk Head Belt, i.e. east of the Rakaia Terrane (Triassic-Late Permian) and west of the Pahau Terrane (Early Cretaceous-Late Jurassic). © 2011 The Royal Society of New Zealand.