Chronology of fans and terraces in the Galatea Basin

Abstract

Air-borne volcanic ash beds are used to date fans and terraces in the Galatea Basin and to outline the depositional history of this part of the Rangitaiki Valley. The basin is interpreted as a fault-angle depression formed by a downwarped sheet of ignimbrite and an upthrusted block of greywacke which forms the Ikawhenua Range. It is from this range that much of the detritus has been derived to fill the basin, deposited mainly in the form of fans and terraces. The larger fans cover a wide area and their surfaces are older than the Rotoma eruption of c. 8000 years B.P. The widespread occurrence of these fans indicates a major erosion interval between c. 11,000 and c. 8,000 years ago. The younger fans are distributed in a particular order with fans of the Pre-Taupo surface north of the Horomanga Stream and those of the Pre- and Post-Kaharoa surfaces south of the same stream. This ordered distribution of the younger fans suggests a climatic control of fan building.

Aggradation and degradation phases in the Rangitaiki and Whirinaki Rivers have formed a pronounced meander trough containing terraces of the Pre-Taupo, Pre-Kaharoa, and Post-Kaharoa surfaces. The terrace of the Pre-Kaharoa surface, largely of Taupo Pumice alluvium, is the most common. Degradation, however, is controlled by a local base level at the ignimbrite rapids on the Rangitaiki River just north of the Galatea Basin.