16

1:250000 Geological Map

Geology of the
Christchurch Area

P. J. FORSYTH
D. J. A. BARRELL
R. JONGENS
(COMPILERS)
 Age Oxygen New
Age (ka) isotope Zealand
International New Zealand International New Zealand events stages
(Ma)
251.0 0.01 0 12

D'Urville
(Guadalupian) (Lopingian)
Changhsingian Makarewan YDm

Quater-
Holocene Haweran Wq

nary
Waiitian YDw 3

Late
Pleistocene Castlecliffian Wc 4

Wanganui
Wuchiapingian Puruhauan YDp 100 5
1.8

Haweran
260.4 Gelasian Nukumaruan Wn

Late
Pliocene
6
Capitanian Flettian YAf Piacenzian Mangapanian Wm
Middle

Wp 200 7
3.6 Waipipian
Wordian

Early
8

Aparima
Roadian Zanclean Opoitian Wo
Permian

270.6 Barrettian YAr 300

5.3 9
Kungurian Messinian Kapitean Tk 10
Mangapirian YAm 400 11
Artinskian

Taranaki
(Cisuralian)

12
Telfordian YAt
Early

Late
Tt 500 13
Tongaporutuan

NEOGENE
Tortonian
Sakmarian 14
Ypt

Castlecliffian
600 15
Asselian 16
299.0 11.2 17
Gzhelian 700 18
Waiauan Sw 19
20
Pennsylvanian

Miocene

Southland
CENOZOIC
Kasimovian 21
Serravallian 800

Middle
Moscovian
Lillburnian Sl
900
Bashkirian
Langhian Clifdenian Sc
318.1 16.4 1000
Carboniferous

Pareora
Serpukhovian Altonian Pl
Burdigalian

Early
F
Otaian Po
Mississippian

Aquitanian
Waitakian Lw
23.8

Landon
Visean
Oligocene
Early Late
Chattian Duntroonian Ld
28.5
Rupelian Whaingaroan Lwh
33.7 Runangan Ar
PALEOGENE

Late Priabonian

Arnold
37.0 Bartonian Kaiatan Ak
Eocene
Middle

Bortonian Ab
Tournasian
Lutetian Porangan Dp
Heretaungan Dh
359.2 49.0
Early

Dannevirke
Ypresian Mangaorapan Dm
Famennian Waipawan
Late

Dw
JU 55.5
Paleocene

Frasnian Thanetian
Early Late

385.3
Givetian Selandian Teurian Dt
Middle

61.0
JM
Eifelian Danian
Devonian

397.5 65.0
PALE O Z O I C

Maastrichtian
Emsian Jem
Mata

Haumurian Mh
Campanian
Early

Late

Pragian Jpr Santonian Piripauan Mp

Raukumara

Coniacian Teratan Rt

Jlo Turonian Mangaotanean Rm

Lochkovian
Cretaceous

Arowhanan Ra
417.2 Cenomanian
Ngaterian Cn
Clarence

Pridoli Epr 99.6

Motuan Cm
Albian
Silurian

Ludlow Elu Urutawan Cu

423.5
Korangan Uk
Wenlock Ewe Aptian
Early

Llandovery Ela Barremian

Taitai

443.2 Undifferentiated
Hirnantian Hauterivian
Bolindan Vbo
Taitai
Valanginian Series
Upper

Stage 6 Berriasian
Late

Eastonian Vea
145.5
Oteke

Puaroan Op
Stage 5 Gisbornian Vgi
MESOZOIC

Tithonian
Ordovician

460.5
Middle
Middle

Darriwilian Darriwilian Vda Ohauan Ko

Late

Yapeenian Vya
Stage 3 Castlemainian Kimmeridgian
Vca
472.0 Chewtonian Vch
Oxfordian Heterian Kh
Bendigonian Vbe 157.0
Kawhia

Stage 2 Callovian
Jurassic
Middle
Lower

Bathonian
Early

Temaikan Kt
Lancefieldian Vla
Bajocian

Tremadocian Aalenian
175.6
pre-Lancefieldian Vpl
490.0
Stage 6 Datsonian Xda Toarcian
Ururoan Hu
Payntonian
Herangi
Late

Xpa
Paibian Iverian Xiv
501 Idamean Xid Pliensbachian
Early

Mindyallan Xmi
Stage 4 Boomerangian Xbo Sinemurian
Undillan Xun Aratauran Ha
Stage 3 Hettangian
Middle

Floran Xfl 199.6

Stage 2
Cambrian

Rhaetian Otapirian Bo
Balfour

Warepan Bw
Ordian/Lower
Late

Stage 1 Xor Norian

Templetonian Otamitan Bm
510 Oretian Br
Triassic

Carnian Kaihikuan Gk
Early

237.0
XL
Middle

Ladinian
Gore

Etalian Ge
542
Anisian
Precambrian Z
245.0 Malakovian Gm
New Zealand geological
Early

Olenekian
Nelsonian Gn
251.0
Induan time scale (after Cooper 2004).
Geology of the
Christchurch Area

Scale 1:250 000

P. J. FORSYTH
D. J. A. BARRELL
R. JONGENS
(COMPILERS)

Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences 1:250 000 Geological Map 16

GNS Science
Lower Hutt, New Zealand

2008

i
 BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE

Forsyth, P.J.; Barrell, D.J.A.; Jongens, R. (compilers) 2008: Geology of the Christchurch area. Institute of
Geological & Nuclear Sciences 1:250 000 geological map 16. 1 sheet + 67 p. Lower Hutt, New Zealand. GNS
Science.

Edited, designed, and prepared for publication by J.J. Aitken, B. Smith Lyttle, D.W. Heron, P.A. Carthew and P.L. Murray

Printed by Graphic Press and Packaging Ltd, Levin

ISBN 978-0-478-19649-8
Copyright Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Limited 2008

FRONT COVER

The Avon River flows from right to left through the suburb of Avondale (the golf course is in the left middle distance) in
the eastern part of Christchurch city. The Avon-Heathcote estuary is visible beyond, with part of the northern coastline of
Banks Peninsula in the distance. Much of Christchurch is built on Holocene alluvial, swamp and coastal deposits, while
Banks Peninsula is the remnant of two coalesced Miocene volcanoes.
Photo CN21020/36: D.L. Homer.

ii
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT......................................................................v
Keywords...........................................................................v
INTRODUCTION...........................................................1
THE QMAP SERIES.........................................................1
The QMAP geographic information system......................1
Data sources.......................................................................1
Reliability...........................................................................1
REGIONAL SETTING......................................................1
GEOMORPHOLOGY ......................................................5
Canterbury ranges and basins............................................5
Canterbury Plains...............................................................9
Lake Ellesmere...................................................................9
Pegasus coast...................................................................11
Banks Peninsula...............................................................11
Offshore...........................................................................13
Chatham Islands...............................................................13
STRATIGRAPHY..........................................................15
PERMIAN TO EARLY CRETACEOUS.........................15
Torlesse composite terrane..............................................15
Permian to Triassic rocks of the Chatham Islands...........15
Rakaia terrane.................................................................17
Permian to Late Triassic sedimentary rocks....................17
Metamorphism and structure of Rakaia terrane...............18
Jurassic sedimentary and igneous rocks..........................19
Pahau terrane..................................................................20
Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous sedimentary rocks......20
Metamorphism and structure of Pahau terrane................21
Esk Head belt...................................................................21
Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous sedimentary and
volcanic rocks...............................................................21
LATE CRETACEOUS TO PLIOCENE
ROCKS OF CANTERBURY.......................................23
Late Cretaceous rocks......................................................23
Latest Cretaceous to Early Oligocene rocks....................24
Late Oligocene to Pliocene rocks....................................28
Igneous rocks of Banks Peninsula...................................29
Undifferentiated Cenozoic intrusive rocks......................32
MID-CRETACEOUS TO PLEISTOCENE
ROCKS OF THE CHATHAM ISLANDS...................32
Mid-Cretaceous sedimentary rocks..................................32
Late Cretaceous volcanic rocks.......................................33
Paleogene sedimentary and volcanic rocks......................34
Pliocene volcanic and related sedimentary rocks............34
Pliocene to Quaternary sediments . .................................37
QUATERNARY...............................................................38
Scree and colluvial deposits.............................................38
Landslide deposits ..........................................................38
Glacial deposits . .............................................................38
River deposits .................................................................40
Alluvial fan deposits........................................................41
Loess ...............................................................................41
Dune sand.........................................................................43
Swamp, lake and coastal deposits....................................43
Deposits of human origin.................................................43
SUBSURFACE AND OFFSHORE GEOLOGY.............44
TECTONIC HISTORY.................................................45
Permian to Early Cretaceous............................................45
Mid-Cretaceous to Paleogene..........................................45
Miocene and Pliocene......................................................45
Quaternary........................................................................46
ENGINEERING GEOLOGY.......................................47
Paleozoic to Early Cretaceous rocks . .............................47
Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic sedimentary rocks...........47
Cretaceous and Cenozoic volcanic rocks.........................47
Quaternary sediments.......................................................47
GEOLOGICAL RESOURCES....................................48
Aggregate.........................................................................48
Rip-rap.............................................................................49
Limestone.........................................................................49
Bentonite..........................................................................49
Clay..................................................................................49
Sand.................................................................................49
Building stone..................................................................49
Phosphate.........................................................................50
Metallic minerals.............................................................50
Warm springs...................................................................50
Groundwater....................................................................51
Coal .................................................................................51
Hydrocarbons...................................................................52
GEOLOGICAL HAZARDS.........................................53
Earthquakes......................................................................53
Landslides........................................................................56
Erosion, flooding and sedimentation................................56
Tsunami............................................................................57
Groundwater contamination.............................................58
AVAILABILITY OF QMAP DATA..............................59
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.............................................59
REFERENCES...............................................................60
iii
Lying at the northern edge of Banks Peninsula (Horomaka), Shag Rock (Rapanui, literally the great sternpost)
marks the entrance to the Avon-Heathcote estuary, known as Te Wahap (the Avon is tkaro and the
Heathcote is Opawaho). The sheltered waters of Te Wahap and the adjacent wetlands provided Mori with
rich resources of fish, birds and flax. Sand accumulations along the foot of the cliffs allowed safe access to
old sea caves, notably at Redcliffs (Te Rae Kura, literally red, glowing headlands) at far right. Here Moa Bone
Point Cave (Te Ana Hineraki) provided a place of shelter for Mori over many centuries.
Photo CN25490/18: D.L. Homer.

iv
ABSTRACT
The Christchurch 1:250 000 geological map covers a land
area of approximately 9870 km2 in the Canterbury region
of the South Island of New Zealand and the Chatham
Islands, 850 km further east. It includes foothills of the
Southern Alps, basins and ranges of northern Canterbury,
Banks Peninsula and part of the Canterbury Plains. The
map includes Chatham and Pitt islands and their many
outlying islets and reefs.
The basement rock of the whole map area is the Torlesse
composite terrane a deformed package of Carboniferous
to Cretaceous sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks
accreted to the Gondwanaland margin. The constituent
Rakaia and Pahau terranes occur in the Christchurch map
area, together with the Esk Head belt that is interpreted as a
tectonic suture between the two. The only schistose rocks
in the map area occur on northern Chatham Island. The
greywacke islets of The Forty Fours are the easternmost
emergent land of New Zealand.
The break-up of eastern Gondwanaland began in the mid-
Cretaceous with associated igneous activity, subsidence
and deposition. Progressive regional submergence
through the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene resulted in a
terrestrial to marine transgressive coal measure sequence
of conglomerate, sandstone and mudstone. The extent
of land reached a minimum in the latest Oligocene, with
widespread deposition of calcareous sediments in the
surrounding sea. Early Miocene tectonic deformation,
associated with the Australian-Pacific plate boundary west
of the map area, resulted in increased uplift and erosion
and the development of a regressive sedimentary sequence
in the Canterbury region. Late Miocene volcanism built
the two major overlapping volcanoes of Banks Peninsula.
Further east, several volcanic episodes occurred in the
Chatham Islands area, which remained largely submerged
from the Late Cretaceous until the Late Pliocene. These
islands are remote from the plate boundary and remain
tectonically quiescent.
Uplift by folding and faulting continues to the present day
in parts of Canterbury. Erosion of the uplifted landmass,
together with glacial-interglacial climatic fluctuations,
resulted in the widespread deposition of unconsolidated
Quaternary sediments. Gravel-laden braided river systems
built the Canterbury Plains.
There are vast resources of aggregate in Canterbury. Coal,
clay, limestone and sand have been extracted from the
Cretaceous-Cenozoic sedimentary sequence, and there is
potential for hydrocarbons to be discovered in this sequence
beneath the Canterbury Plains or offshore. Phosphorite
deposits are known on the sea floor of the Chatham
Rise. Shallow groundwater resources are substantial and
are widely exploited on the Canterbury Plains, but are
vulnerable to contamination.
Significant geological hazards affecting the map area
include ground shaking, liquefaction and ground rupture
from earthquakes; erosion, flooding and sedimentation are
other hazards. Slope instability is widespread in hill and
mountain terrain. Low-lying areas along the coast are at
risk from tsunami and sea-level rise.

Keywords

Christchurch; Canterbury; Chatham Islands; 1:250 000 geological map; GIS; geographic information
system; QMAP; digital data; Torlesse Range; Puketeraki Range; Canterbury Plains; Banks Peninsula;
Lake Ellesmere/Waihora; Kaitorete barrier; Akaroa Harbour; Lyttelton Harbour; Torlesse composite terrane;
Chatham Schist; Rakaia terrane; Pahau terrane; Esk Head belt; Wakaepa Formation; Pember Diorite; Mount
Somers Volcanics Group; Monro Conglomerate; Eyre Group; Motunau Group; Kowai Formation; Thomas
Formation; Burnt Hill Group; Allandale Rhyolite; Governors Bay Andesite; Lyttelton Volcanic Group; Mt Herbert
Volcanic Group; Akaroa Volcanic Group; Diamond Harbour Volcanic Group; Waihere Bay Group; Pitt Island
Group; Tioriori Group; Kekerione Group; Mairangi Group; Karewa Group; Porters Pass Fault; Mt White
Fault; Torlesse Fault Zone; Grey Fault; Birch Fault; Ashley Fault; Cust Fault; Esk Fault; Lees Valley Fault;
Springbank Fault; Cust Anticline; aggregate; limestone; bentonite; clay; sand; building stone; phosphorite;
warm springs; coal; hydrocarbons; groundwater; engineering geology; natural hazards; active fault; active
fold; earthquake; Modified Mercalli scale; landslide; rock avalanche; erosion; flooding; sedimentation; tsunami.
v
 170 E 175 E 180 E

Ne
w
Ca
35 S le
do 20
Kaitaia 35 S
ni 00 Whangarei
a

200
Ba
si

0
n
Auckland

Waikato Rotorua 47 mm/yr

Challenger Taranaki
Raukumara

Plateau Basin
Hawkes
Taranaki Bay
40 S
u gh 40 S

Australian Tro
Plate Nelson Wellington Wairarapa i
a ng
Pacific
20 ur
00 ik Plate
H
Greymouth Kaikoura 41 mm/yr

38 mm/yr 2000
ult
Haast Fa Chatham Ris
Aoraki e
pine
Al QMAP
Christchurch
Wakatipu Waitaki
45 S
Fiordland 45 S
hc
Tren

r
37 mm/y B o u n t y Tr o u g
Murihiku Dunedin h
egur

2000
Puys

Campbell Plateau 0 100 200

Kilometres
165 E 170 E 175 E 180 E

Figure 1 Regional tectonic setting of New Zealand, showing the location of the Christchurch geological map and other
QMAP sheets, major offshore features (illustrated by the 2000 m isobath) and active faults. Arrows show the rate and
direction of Pacific Plate movement relative to the Australian Plate. The diagram shows the Chatham Islands in their
correct relationship to the mainland of New Zealand.

vi
INTRODUCTION
THE QMAP SERIES
This geological map (Fig. 1) is one of the national QMAP
series (Quarter-million-scale MAP; Nathan 1993) produced
by GNS Science. QMAP updates the earlier Geological Map
of New Zealand 1:250 000 (four miles to the inch) series. Two
sheets in that series Hurunui (Gregg 1964) and Christchurch
(Suggate 1973) overlap with the Christchurch map area.
Considerable geological research has been completed since
those maps were published, including detailed geological
mapping at 1:50 000, commercial investigations, university
theses, and studies of the Cretaceous and Cenozoic
sedimentary rocks (Field, Browne et al. 1989; Wood et
al. 1989). The geology of the Chatham Islands has been
described in comprehensive studies by Hay et al. (1970) and
Campbell et al. (1993).
The geology shown on the map has been generalised for
presentation at 1:250 000 scale. Rock types are differentiated
primarily in terms of their age of deposition, eruption or
intrusion. The colour of the units on the map face reflects
their age, with overprints used to distinguish some lithologies.
Letter symbols (in upper case, some with a lower case prefix
to indicate early, middle or late) give the predominant age of
the unit. Metamorphic rocks are mapped in terms of the age
of the parent rock, with overprints reflecting the degree of
metamorphism. The last lower case letters indicate either a
formal lithostratigraphic unit or the predominant rock type.
A time scale showing the correlation between international
and local time scales, and ages in millions of years (Ma) or
thousands of years (ka), is inside the front cover (Cooper
2004).
The text is generalised and is not a complete description
of the various rock units mapped. Most names applied to
geological units are those already published. References to
more detailed information are cited throughout the text.
The QMAP geographic information system
The QMAP series uses computer methods to store,
manipulate and present geological information. The maps
are drawn from data stored in the QMAP geographic
information system (GIS), a database developed and
maintained by GNS Science. The primary software used
is ArcInfo.
Digital topographic data were obtained from Land
Information New Zealand. The QMAP database is
complementary to, and can be used in conjunction with,
other spatially referenced GNS Science digital data sets,
such as gravity and magnetic surveys, mineral resources
and localities, fossil localities, active faults, and petrological
samples.
The QMAP series and database are based on detailed
geological information plotted by hand on 1:50 000
topographic base maps. These data record sheets are
available for consultation at GNS offices in Lower Hutt and
Dunedin. Geological contacts and units have been simplified
but point data (for example, dip/strike measurements) have
not. All point data are stored in the GIS with a selection of
these shown on the map. Procedures for map compilation,
and details of data storage and manipulation techniques,
are given by Rattenbury & Heron (1997).
Data sources
The map and text have been compiled from a wide variety of
sources, including published maps and papers, unpublished
university theses, GNS Science technical and map files,
mining company reports, field trip guides, the New Zealand
Fossil Record file (FRED), the Geological Resource Map
of New Zealand (GERM) and the petrological (PETLAB)
digital database (Fig. 2). Additional field mapping was
undertaken in the Christchurch map area between 2005
and 2008 to resolve problems and to fill significant gaps in
knowledge within the map area. No additional field work
was carried out on the Chatham Islands. Many areas of
Quaternary deposits, including landslides, were mapped
primarily using aerial photos, with limited field checking.
Offshore and subsurface onshore data were compiled from
published studies of the Canterbury region and eastern
offshore areas (Field, Browne et al. 1989; Wood et al. 1989)
and unpublished data provided by Austral Pacific Energy
Ltd. Data sources used in map compilation are summarised
in Figure 2.
Reliability
The process of map compilation and simplification limits
the precision with which geological contacts, faults
and folds can be shown at 1:250 000. The unpublished
1:50 000 data record sheets have a greater precision of
detail and accuracy. QMAP is a regional scale map, and
should not be used in isolation for any activities that require
geological site investigations, such as land development,
planning and design of engineering projects, or detailed
geological hazard assessments.
REGIONAL SETTING
The Christchurch geological map comprises two distinct
land areas: part of the Canterbury region in the eastern
South Island (an area of approximately 8900 km2), and the
Chatham Islands about 850 km to the east (approximately
970 km2 in area).1 The intervening submerged Chatham
Rise is excluded from the map.
The Christchurch map area has a population of about
440 000 (Statistics New Zealand 2006 census) mostly
concentrated in and around Christchurch, the South
Islands largest city. Pastoral farming once dominated the
Canterbury economy, but forestry, viticulture, tourism and
recreation have become major economic activities. With
diversification of land use and population expansion, many
smaller towns that formerly serviced agriculture have
become urban satellites of Christchurch, and the new towns
1
These areas include the substantial water bodies of Lake Ellesmere
and Te Whanga Lagoon.
1
 3 16 20 1
37 32 5 8 27
11
39 33
9 59 18
28 24 58
29 52
57 60
31 4
17 49
30 15 26
21 54
2 10
15 53
56
15 34
6 14
12 15 14 52
23

51 15
7 40
41
46
13
36
19
25
35 47

52
50
42

40 38 19
52 43
48
44
22
53

45

40
52

Theses Published maps

55 Published papers Reports

Seismic reflection Unpublished material

surveys
27

Theses 18 Smart 1954 Published maps Seismic surveys

1 Barrell 1989 19 Tappenden 2003 34 Brown 1973 51 Dorn et al. 2008
2 Blair 1972 20 Yousif 1987 35 Brown & Weeber 1992 52 Kirkaldy et al. 1963
3 Botsford 1983 36 Cox 1978 53 Schlumberger Geco
4 Carr 1970 Published papers 37 Gregg 1964 Prakla 1998 - 2000
5 Cowan 1992 21 Andrews 1974 38 Griffiths 1974
6 Coyle 1988 22 Armon 1974 39 Griffiths 1978 Reports
7 Evans 2000 23 Barnes 1996 40 Kear et al. 1967 54 McPherson 1991
8 Finnemore 2004 24 Bradshaw & Newman 1979 41 Raeside & Rennie 1974 55 McPherson 1997
9 Garlick 1992 25 Carlson et al. 1980 42 Rennie & Bennett 1981 56 Sisson et al. 2001
10 Howard 2001 26 Cowan et al. 1996 43 Sewell & Weaver 1990 57 Yetton 2004
11 Justice 1994 27 Field, Browne et al. 1989 44 Sewell et al. 1992 58 Yetton et al. 2002
12 Marden 1976 28 Gage 1956 45 Sewell et al. 1988
13 Mathews 1989 29 Gage 1958 46 Speight 1928 Unpublished
14 May 2004 30 Gage 1970 47 Suggate 1973 59 Campbell 1999
15 McLennan 1981 31 Mason 1941 48 Ward et al. 1964 60 Cowan & Nicol 1990
16 Nicol 1991 32 Newman & Bradshaw 1981 49 Wilson 1963
17 Powell 2000 33 Nicol et al. 1994 50 Wilson 1989

Figure 2 Geological data sources for the Canterbury and Chatham Islands parts of this map. The Chatham Islands are
shown at the same scale as Canterbury. Unpublished maps are held in the map archives of GNS Science, the Ministry of
Economic Development, or in university libraries. Details of individual sources are provided in the references.

2
 3 1
2
Published maps
1. Campbell et al. 1993
2. Hay et al. 1970
3. Wood et al. 1989
Published papers
4. Adams & Robinson 1977
5. Andrews et al. 1978
of Rolleston and Pegasus are being built. About 600 people
live on the Chatham Islands, where fishing and farming are
the main economic activities.
The northwestern part of the Canterbury map area is
dominated by the foothills of the Southern Alps, while
the Canterbury Plains comprise the central part. Most of
the population centres are situated on alluvial plains. In
northern Canterbury, the plains give way to downlands,
ranges and basins. To the east, the Canterbury Plains
abut the eroded volcanic massif of Banks Peninsula. The
Chatham Islands are the emergent part of the submarine
Chatham Rise.
The Canterbury ranges and basins lie in a zone of active
tectonic deformation produced by the ongoing convergence
of the Australian and Pacific plates (Fig. 1). Southeast
of the Canterbury range front and associated downlands,
the areas further from the plate boundary zone, including
the Canterbury Plains, Banks Peninsula and the Chatham
Islands, are tectonically much less active.
The basement rocks of the whole map area are Paleozoic
to Mesozoic sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, termed
Torlesse composite terrane, that were originally part of the
Gondwanaland supercontinent. This composite terrane
mainly comprises thick, deformed packages of indurated
sandstone and mudstone, informally known as greywacke.
It includes the Rakaia and Pahau terranes (Fig. 3), together
with the intervening Esk Head belt, interpreted as a tectonic
suture between the two. Chatham Schist on northern
Chatham Island is interpreted as part of the Torlesse
composite terrane.
Mid-Cretaceous volcanic, shallow intrusive and sedimentary
rocks occur locally in the Canterbury foothills, beneath the
Canterbury Plains, on Banks Peninsula and on the Chatham
Islands. More extensive deposition of sedimentary rocks
began in the Late Cretaceous and continued through to
Pleistocene time, generally forming a single large cycle
of marine transgression and regression with intermittent
intraplate volcanic episodes. One of these, in the Miocene,
formed Banks Peninsula which is the largest accumulation
of Cenozoic volcanic rocks in the South Island. On the
Chatham Islands, episodes of submarine volcanism and
sedimentation on a current-swept oceanic platform resulted
in patchy preservation of discontinuous rock bodies.
Changing dynamics of the Australian-Pacific plate boundary
during the Neogene resulted in widespread faulting and
folding that deformed the basement and overlying cover,
and resulted in uplift and the formation of ranges and
3
 SEDIMENTARY AND VOLCANIC ROCKS

Northland and East Coast allochthons

Waipapa composite terrane Torlesse composite

(western North Island) terrane (eastern NZ)
(Waioeka Northland

Eastern
Morrinsville petrofacies) Pahau
Allochthon
Hunua Kaweka Rakaia

Caples terrane

Province
Dun Mountain - Maitai terrane
Murihiku terrane
Brook Street terrane

East Coast

Province
Allochthon

Western
Takaka terrane
Buller terrane

PLUTONIC ROCKS
Median Batholith
Karamea Batholith
Paparoa Batholith
Hohonu Batholith

REGIONAL TECTONIC-
METAMORPHIC OVERPRINTS
Esk Head Belt and deformed
zones in the Pahau terrane

gh
Haast Schist

ou
Tr
Gneiss ngi
ura
Hik
N

200 km
ULT
FA

NE
PI
AL

Christchurch
h
nc
e
Tr
ur
eg
ys
Pu

Figure 3 Pre-Cenozoic basement rocks of New Zealand, subdivided into tectonostratigraphic terranes and batholiths; the
extent of the Northland and East Coast allochthons is also shown (after Mortimer 2004 and Adams et al. 2007). The inset
map shows more detail for the Christchurch map area, where the Torlesse composite terrane is differentiated into Rakaia
terrane (blue), Esk Head belt (overprint) and Pahau terrane (grey-green).

basins. The Late Cretaceous to Pliocene cover sequence
was eroded from many uplifted areas but has been preserved
in inland basins, beneath the Canterbury Plains, in northern
Canterbury, and offshore.
During the Quaternary, geological processes and landscape
evolution were influenced by global cycles of warmer
(interglacial) and colder (glacial) climate. Glaciation in the
mountains was associated with widespread sedimentation
4
in the lowlands. Although glaciers have disappeared
from the map area, their deposits occur in inland areas of
Canterbury. Glacial/interglacial cycles also caused large
fluctuations in sea level, which influenced sedimentation
in coastal and offshore areas. Since their emergence in the
Late Pliocene, the Chatham Islands have accumulated an
extensive blanket of unconsolidated sediments, including
occasional ash layers from distant North Island volcanic
eruptions.
 GEOMORPHOLOGY
The landscape of the Christchurch map area reflects the
influences of tectonics, localised volcanism, rock strength
and structure, sediment deposition and coastal erosion.
There are several distinct physiographic areas (Fig. 4).
Canterbury ranges and basins
Ranges and basins east of the Southern Alps have been
formed by tectonic movements associated with the evolution
of the Australian-Pacific plate boundary. The ranges are the
result of uplift by faulting and/or folding, while the basins
lie in areas of lesser uplift or subsidence. Ranges vary from
subdued hills, such as parts of the Malvern Hills, to rugged
mountains such as the Torlesse and Puketeraki ranges.
Over time, rivers have cut gorges through these rising
ranges, the Waimakariri (Otarama) gorge (Fig. 5) being the
longest and most spectacular. Alluvial fans and plains have
formed within the basins, particularly during Pleistocene
glaciations. In many places, these depositional landforms
have been incised periodically by rivers to form terraced
valleys and nested alluvial fans.
In the upper Waimakariri basin, large valley glaciers
extended from the Southern Alps during a succession of
glaciations, most recently during the Last Glacial Maximum

CANTERBURY Waipara Coastal

upper
RANGES & BASINS basin hills
Waipara
Waimakariri R.
basin

Ko
Lees

w
ai
Valley

R
N

.
Ashle
y R.

Eyr
e R
.
Haw

Malvern
Hills PEGASUS
kins

.
k a ri ri R
Wa im a COAST
R.
Se
lw

Avon-Heathcote
yn

Ho
ro
C A N T E R B U RY P L A I N S Estuary
R.

ra
ta
R.
R Lyttelton Harbour
ak
ai
a
R
.
BA NK S
PE NINS UL A
LAKE
Lake Akaroa
ELLESMERE Forsyth Harbour

Kaitorete
barrier
Ashb
urto
n R

0 10 20
.

Canterbury range front

Kilometres

Figure 4 Shaded topographic relief model of the Christchurch map area, illuminated from the northwest and showing
the main physiographic features. The model is derived from 20 metre contour data supplied by Land Information New
Zealand.

5
Figure 5 Uplift and erosion of greywacke rock (Rakaia terrane) have produced a rugged landscape in the foothills east of
the Torlesse Range (far left). The Waimakariri River emerges from the foothills via the Otarama Gorge (centre right) and
has cut an entrenched flight of terraces at the western margin of the Canterbury Plains.
Photo CN3562/11: D.L. Homer.

(LGM) which ended about 18 000 years ago. Associated
landforms include scoured bedrock knobs and ridges,
hummocky moraine and meltwater outwash terraces (Fig.
6). Wave-cut benches on alluvial fans show that a glacial
lake once existed behind moraines of the LGM (Gage
1958). Most of the present-day lakes are impounded by
alluvial fans, but Blackwater is a kettle hole produced by
the melting of buried ice. Scattered cirque basins were
formed by smaller glaciers in the Torlesse and Puketeraki
ranges.
The landscape further south and east was not directly
affected by glaciers, and is predominantly tectonic in
origin. The seaward flank of the Northern Canterbury hills
shows flights of tilted interglacial marine terraces, the most
prominent of which is the Motunau coastal plain (Fig. 7).
The highest terraces of the Waipara River also show tilting
associated with anticlinal folding across the coastal hills.
Tilted beds of resistant rock form strike ridges, for example
the limestone ridges around the Waipara gorge and the
basalt cuesta forming the Harper Hills.
6
Hummocky landslide terrain is common, and locally very
extensive, on slopes within Late Cretaceous to Pliocene
sedimentary rocks. The largest landslides are seated in
mudstones that underlie Oligocene limestones, notably in
the Waipara gorge and in the coastal hills (Fig. 8). The
basin floor landscapes, such as in Lees Valley and the
Waipara basin, are dominated by alluvial fans and terraced
river plains. Loess is common on older parts of the basin
floors and margins.
A prominent range front escarpment, largely fault-
controlled, faces the Canterbury Plains and trends northeast
from the Torlesse Range to Mt Grey (Fig. 9). The transition
from the range and basin topography to the Canterbury
Plains in most places is marked by downlands subdued
landscapes of broad ridges dissected by steep gullies
draining to broad valleys. The downlands are formed on
gently dipping Late Cretaceous to Pliocene sedimentary
rocks, or on mid- to high-level terraces of older Quaternary
gravels, all commonly mantled by loess.
Figure 6 The braided Waimakariri River drains eastward (left) through the formerly glaciated upper Waimakariri basin.
Extensive hummocky moraine in the basin floor, in places rilled by gullying, caps ice-trimmed greywacke rock. Wave-cut
benches (centre) mark the diminishing levels of a moraine-dammed lake that temporarily occupied the valley floor after
the retreat of ice-age glaciers. Lakes Pearson (left), Grasmere and Sarah (far right) are impounded by overlapping alluvial
fans. The Craigieburn Range (centre-right distance) and the hills beyond lie west of the map boundary.
Photo CN14732/26: D.L. Homer.

Figure 7 The Motunau coastal

plain is a wave-cut bench formed
during a previous interglacial
period. Long-term tectonic uplift
and modern sea-cliff erosion have
caused the Motunau River to cut
a sinuous valley into the marine
terrace.
Photo CN24145/10: D.L. Homer.

7
 Figure 8 The Montserrat Landslide southwest of Motunau
is a large, deep-seated complex slump/earthflow. It has
developed in Eocene bentonitic mudstones, disrupting the
overlying mid-Cenozoic formations. The steeply-dipping
rock in the foreground near the modern sea cliff is Omihi
Formation, tilted by deep-seated failure and mobilisation of
the underlying bentonite. Photo CN24146/14: D.L. Homer.

Figure 9 One of the most distinctive landforms of the

Christchurch area is the range-front escarpment that rises
sharply at the northwestern margin of the Canterbury Plains,
seen here from the Torlesse Range (left) to Mt Oxford
(right). Last Glaciation alluvial gravel surfaces abut the low
ranges of the Malvern Hills in the left middle distance. The
narrow Holocene floodplain of the Hawkins River (centre)
flows down the southwestern side of the Waimakariri glacial
outwash fan. Photo CN6883/13: D.L. Homer.

8
Canterbury Plains
The vast expanse of the Canterbury Plains comprises
coalesced floodplains. Large parts of the plains are
abandoned braided-river floodplains, last occupied during
the LGM. On the inner parts of the plains, most of the
rivers have cut into the LGM plains surface. The deep,
terraced, canyons of the Waimakariri River upstream of
Courtney, and the Rakaia River upstream of Rokeby, are
striking examples of post-glacial entrenchment. Incision
diminishes downstream, with the lower parts of the river
passing downstream onto active or recently abandoned
Holocene braided floodplains. Southwest of Lake
Ellesmere and north of the Ashley River, a Holocene coastal
cliff is cut into the seaward edge of the plains (Fig. 10). In
the coastal reaches of the Ashburton, Rakaia, Kowai and
Waipara rivers, cliff retreat has forced the lower reaches of
the rivers and streams to incise in order to maintain grade to
sea level at the foot of the sea cliff (Leckie 1994).
Hills and ridges of older rocks stand above the alluvial
plains surface. Near Mairaki Downs and View Hill, uplifted
river terraces reveal active fold or fault growth, with the
margins of the elevated ground progressively trimmed by
the adjacent river systems. Racecourse Hill is an eroded
remnant of gravel alluvium that has been elevated on the
crest of an active anticline. Burnt Hill and Gorge Hill are
not associated with any obvious signs of deformation, and
may be summits of an earlier range and basin landscape
buried by alluvial aggradation.
Lake Ellesmere
Post-glacial sea-level rise drowned the interfluve between
the Rakaia and Waimakariri gravel plains, forming the
Lake Ellesmere (Te Waihora) embayment. Initially an inlet
of the sea, the embayment was progressively enclosed by
growth of Kaitorete Spit. Presently a barrier rather than
a true open-ended spit, Kaitorete comprises beach gravel
and sand transported by longshore drift northeast from the
rivers and eroding coastline of the Canterbury Bight (Fig.
10). The barrier is dominated by broad gravel ridges nearly
parallel to the present coast (Fig. 11). A series of curved
ridges at its inner margin formed during earlier phases
of its evolution. During the late Holocene, Rakaia and
Waimakariri floodwaters sometimes drained into Ellesmere.
These large inflows caused persistent breaching of the
barrier, creating open estuarine rather than impounded
lacustrine conditions (Soons et al. 1997). Beach ridges
around Ellesmere mark former impounded high lake levels
(Hemmingsen 1997) and are best developed on older parts
of the former river floodplains. Progradation of Kaitorete
barrier has recently enclosed Lake Forsyth (Wairewa),
which had been open to the sea until the mid-19th century

Figure 10 The Canterbury Bight coastline

is exposed to southerly swells. Gravel
is continually swept northeastward,
as illustrated by the longshore spit
constricting the mouth of the Ashburton
River. The 25-metre-high coastal cliff is
the result of ongoing wave erosion of the
seaward edge of the Canterbury Plains.
Cliff retreat has caused the lower reaches
of rivers and streams to cut valleys into
the plains to maintain grade to sea level.
Cliff erosion is the main source of gravel
supply to the mobile beach face, and
ultimately contributes to the growth of
Kaitorete Spit.
Photo CN24205/18: D.L. Homer.

9
Figure 11 The beach gravel barrier of Kaitorete Spit stretches from the seaward margin of the Canterbury Plains to the
volcanic rock ridges of Banks Peninsula and separates Lake Ellesmere (far right) from the Canterbury Bight (left). Gravel
ridges (right middle distance) hooking into Lake Ellesmere formed when Kaitorete was an open-ended spit and Ellesmere
an estuary. Lake Forsyth (foreground) has been impounded by more recent growth of the barrier near the settlement of
Birdlings Flat. Photo CN23347/10: D.L. Homer.

Figure 12 A spit of beach and dune sand separates the sea from the large Brooklands Lagoon at the mouth of the
Waimakariri River on the Pegasus Bay coast. This prograding coastline is low-lying and dominated by swamps and
dunefields. The villages of Kairaki (foreground) and Brooklands (middle distance) are built on elevated ground within the
dune areas to reduce susceptibility to flooding. Photo CN24117/16: D.L. Homer.

10
(Soons et al. 1997). The outlets of both lakes are artificially
controlled to reduce flooding.
Pegasus coast
Like the Lake Ellesmere area, the Pegasus Bay coast was
inundated by post-glacial sea-level rise. Fluvial sediments
have built out progressively across the coastal zone, where
they are redistributed by wave and wind action. Longshore
drift on the Pegasus coast is toward the south, in contrast to
that in the Canterbury Bight. Swamps and dune fields have
developed during Holocene coastal progradation of up to
12 km over the last 4000 years (Shulmeister & Kirk 1993).
The South New Brighton sand spit largely encloses the
Avon-Heathcote estuary (front cover) and the Brooklands
spit has developed near the Waimakariri River mouth (Fig.
12). These spits, together with the Ashley River mouth,
have changed substantially in historic times.
North of the Ashley River, the seaward edge of the
Canterbury Plains is a former sea cliff cut following the
culmination of the post-glacial sea-level rise. The cliff has
become stabilised and protected by the eastward outbuilding
of beach and dune sediment.
Banks Peninsula
Banks Peninsula comprises the deeply eroded remnants of
two large and overlapping Miocene volcanoes Lyttelton
in the northwest and Akaroa in the southeast as well as
several minor volcanic centres. Many of the lava flows dip
outwards from former vents near the present-day Lyttelton
and Akaroa harbours. These harbours are primarily drowned
river valleys that have existed for millions of years: lava
flows in the Diamond Harbour area were erupted between
about 6 and 7 million years ago onto a landscape similar to
that of the present day (Sewell et al. 1992; Fig. 13). The
outer flanks of the volcanoes are dissected by deep radial
valleys, resulting in a deeply embayed coastline alternating
with high cliffs (Fig. 14). Extensive bayhead sand and
mud flats, and sandy beach ridges, occur in the larger bays
(Dingwall 1974; Stephenson & Shulmeister 1999).
Mt Herbert (919 m) is the highest point of Banks Peninsula,
and several other peaks are over 800 m high. The peaks
are primarily erosional features, formed during dissection
of the volcanoes. The most rugged peaks, such as Castle
Rock in the Port Hills between Lyttelton and Christchurch,
and Panama Rock, Pulpit Rock and Devils Gap on the

Figure 13 Lyttelton Harbour looking east from near Marleys Hill, with Port of Lyttelton (distant left), Quail Island (left of
centre), Governors Bay (near centre), Charteris Bay (distant centre) and tidal flats at Head of the Bay (far right). Above
Quail Island, some of the youngest lava flows on Banks Peninsula form the slopes that dip gently towards the harbour from
the high point of Mt Herbert (skyline right of centre). Photo CN23318: D.L. Homer.

Figure 14 The cliffs on the southeastern coast of Banks Peninsula near Pompeys Pillar reveal multiple lava flows dipping
gently towards the sea. The yellow loess that mantles the volcanic rock is thick enough to produce the smooth landform
that characterises many of the ridges and valley slopes of Banks Peninsula. Photo CN25432: D.L. Homer.

11
Figure 15 The Devils Gap eroded lava dome is a prominent landmark on the southwest of Akaroa Volcano, between
Akaroa Harbour and Lake Forsyth. The smooth slopes in the middle distance are developed on loess and colluvium that
mantle the volcanic rocks. Photo CN25495/10: D.L. Homer.

Figure 16 Volcanic hills rise above extensive peat-covered plains on northern Chatham Island. The rocks forming Mt
Dieffenbach (left), Saddle Hill (centre) and Mt Chudleigh (far right) are thought to be of Pliocene age.
Photo: I.M. Turnbull.

12
Akaroa volcano, were formed from trachyte domes (Fig.
15). Most slopes on the peninsula are mantled by loess and
colluvium (Fig. 14), and the thickest deposits on the lower
slopes are dissected by tunnel gullies and rills.
Offshore
The main feature of the offshore area shown on the map is
the Canterbury continental shelf. Its outer edge lies at about
150 m depth, some 80 km southeast of Kaitorete barrier and
50 km southeast of Banks Peninsula (Herzer 1981a). The
sea floor of the Canterbury Bight has a very gentle (<0.1)
gradient, whereas the inner-shelf gradients to the southeast
of Banks Peninsula are steeper (up to 1.5), with a depth of
50 m reached between 2 and 3 km offshore. An extensive
area of submarine ridge and swale morphology between
about 70 and 100 m depth southeast of Banks Peninsula
is interpreted as relict beach/spit/lagoon complexes formed
during low sea levels of the LGM (Herzer 1981a). The
sea bed of Pegasus Bay has generally gentle gradients, but
the sea bed northeast of Waipara River is quite irregular
between 10 and 40 m depth, and is interpreted as an erosion
surface cut on older Quaternary deposits (Carter & Herzer
1986; Barnes 1995).
Further offshore, the Chatham Rise is a broad, linear
feature that extends east for more than 1000 km. The
average depth along the crest of the rise is about 400 m, but
shallows locally over several banks and at the eastern end
where the crest emerges as the Chatham Islands.
Figure 17 Part of the southern Chatham Island cliffed coastline, viewed from the vicinity of The Pinnacles, east of Oropuke.
The cliffs expose lava flows of the Southern Volcanics (Pitt Island Group), which underlie an extensive high plateau. The
small high point on the distant skyline is Karore (282 m), one of the highest points on the island.
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands comprise two major islands, Chatham
and Pitt, and many islets.
The northern Chatham Island landscape is low and gently
rolling, underlain by schist and semischist, mostly covered
with peat, and fringed by coastal sand plains, dunes and
lakes. Numerous isolated volcanic cones are a prominent
feature of the landscape (Fig. 16). The central part of the
island is dominated by the shallow Te Whanga Lagoon,
which is bounded to the west and south by low cliffs cut in
Cenozoic rocks, while to the north and east it is confined
by long belts of sand dunes. The southern part of Chatham
Island is a high, dissected plateau developed on Late
Cretaceous volcanic rocks. The plateau is largely mantled
by peat, with many small lakes and a rugged, cliffed
coastline (Fig. 17).
Pitt Island is generally higher and more rugged than
Chatham, but much of it is likewise a dissected plateau
with high coastal cliffs. In the northeast, the prominent
flat-topped hill Hakepa is formed of trachyte (Fig. 18).
Lower, undulating country in the north and centre of Pitt
Island is formed on less resistant Cretaceous to Paleogene
sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Many cliffed islands west
of Pitt Island (including Mangere, Little Mangere, The
Castle, and Sail Rock) are the wave-eroded remnants of a
large Pliocene volcano.
Photo: I.M. Turnbull.
13
 A

Figure 18 Pitt Island and Pitt Strait.

A: This view west from Hakepa shows rolling country in the centre of Pitt Island. Trachyte of the Southern Volcanics (Pitt
Island Group) forms the foreground, but most of the middle distance is underlain by softer volcanic rocks of the Kekerione
Group. The hill at far left is Waihere (241 m), the highest point on Pitt Island. In the distance are (from right) Mangere Island,
Little Mangere Island and The Castle. Little Mangere Island was the last refuge of the rare and endangered black robins
(Petroica traversi), since relocated to Mangere in an intensive conservation programme. Photo: P.N. Johnson.

B: Islets, stacks and reefs of Pitt Strait, viewed from the south coast of Chatham Island, southwest of Oropuke.
From left: Little Mangere (with southwestern Pitt Island beyond), The Castle, two un-named islets, South Reef, The Pyramid,
Round Rock and Sail Rock. Marine erosion has reduced a Pliocene volcano to these jagged stumps of hard Mairangi Group
rocks. Photo: I.M. Turnbull.

14
STRATIGRAPHY
Late Paleozoic to Mesozoic quartzofeldspathic sedimentary
rocks, commonly called greywacke, form the basement
that underlies the Christchurch map area. In Canterbury,
they form the Southern Alps foothills and are exposed on a
small part of Banks Peninsula. Sandstone and semischist
of similar age are exposed in the Chatham Islands.
Cretaceous and Cenozoic non-marine and marine
sedimentary rocks crop out mainly along the Canterbury
range front and on the Chatham Islands. Cretaceous and
Cenozoic volcanic rocks are exposed in the Southern Alps
foothills, on Banks Peninsula, and on the Chatham Islands.
Quaternary alluvial deposits form the extensive Canterbury
Plains, and a variety of terrestrial deposits of similar age
cover much of the Chatham Islands.
Permian to Triassic rocks of the Chatham Islands
The Forty Fours islands (Fig. 19) consist mainly of
indistinctly bedded quartzofeldspathic sandstone, with
a few thin interbeds of mudstone and rare sandstone-
clast breccia (YTt) (Andrews et al. 1978). These hard,
unfossiliferous rocks are of textural zone I (t.z. I). Their
maximum age, from detrital zircon data, is latest Permian
(Adams et al. 2008), and they are probably not a correlative
of Matarakau Greywacke as suggested by Campbell et al.
(1993). Although the pattern of detrital zircon ages may
B

PERMIAN TO EARLY CRETACEOUS

Torlesse composite terrane

The basement rocks of New Zealand are mapped in

tectonostratigraphic terranes (Bishop et al. 1985; Bradshaw
1989; Fig. 3), of which only the Torlesse composite
terrane crops out in the Christchurch map area. It
comprises indurated quartzofeldspathic sedimentary rocks,
predominantly sandstone and mudstone, that range in age
B: At the Kaingaroa Wharf, well-foliated schist with
from Late Carboniferous to Early Cretaceous in the South
greenschist layers (Kaingaroa Volcanics) is cut by thin late-
Island, and Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous in the North
stage quartz veins. Photo: J.G. Begg.
Island. The Torlesse composite terrane includes the Rakaia
and Pahau terranes, which can be distinguished from each
other on the basis of fossil assemblages, petrography, C
geochemistry, conglomerate clast composition, and age
(Andrews et al. 1976; MacKinnon 1983; Roser & Korsch
1999; Wandres et al. 2004a). The Esk Head belt is a zone
of intense deformation between the Rakaia and Pahau
terranes. In the Chatham Islands, the basement rocks are
placed within the Torlesse composite terrane.

Figure 19 Basement rocks of the Torlesse composite

terrane on the Chatham Islands.
A: Transposed, intercalated sandstone and mudstone
(Matarakau Greywacke) show incipient foliation and mineral
segregation. The outcrop is on the beach west of Kaingaroa.
Photo: J.G. Begg.
C: The Forty Fours, wave-eroded islets composed mainly
of non-schistose sandstone, are the easternmost emergent
land of New Zealand. These cliffs are a breeding site for
Bullers albatross (Thalassarche bulleri), visible in the
foreground. Photo: P.N. Johnson.
15
suggest affinities with Caples Group (Adams et al. 2008),
on this map Forty Fours greywacke is placed within Torlesse
composite terrane pending further research.
Schist and semischist on the northern part of Chatham
Island are known collectively as Chatham Schist (YTt)
(Hay et al. 1970; Adams & Robinson 1977; Campbell et al.
1993). Adams & Robinson (1977) subdivided the Chatham
Schist into three lithologic units in order upwards, Teraki
Formation, Kaingaroa Volcanics and Matarakau Greywacke
(not differentiated on this map). The predominant rock
types are medium- to coarse-grained albite semischist and
schist, and finer-grained equivalents. Black argillaceous
schist, interbedded chert (some with spessartine-grossular
garnet) and distinctive greenschist layers also occur in the
lower two units, while Matarakau Greywacke consists
mainly of semischistose, quartzofeldspathic sandstone
and black mudstone in graded beds that generally young
to the north (Adams & Robinson 1977; Josephson 1985;
Fig. 19). Matarakau Greywacke is t.z. IIA and greater,
based on mica sizes in thin section, and the remainder of
the Chatham Schist is t.z. IIB-III (Turnbull et al. 2001; N.
Mortimer, pers. comm. 2006).
A Chatham Schist is probably part of the Torlesse Supergroup
Figure 20 Rakaia terrane sandstone and mudstone
lithotypes.
A: Very thick-bedded graded sandstone with minor
mudstone, at Mannering Cliffs in the Waimakariri River.
Bedding is overturned (fining up towards left of photo).
B: Thin-bedded graded sandstone and mudstone beds
at Gorge Bridge on the Waimakariri River. Bedding at this
outcrop is normal (younging upwards).
16
The three formations are separated by contacts that appear
to be stratigraphically concordant except near Kaingaroa at
the Titore Fault. This southwest-dipping fault originated
as a normal fault but was later reactivated with reverse
displacement (P. Robinson, pers. comm. 2007). Three
phases of structural development have been identified in
Chatham Schist. An early metamorphic foliation imposed
on bedding was deformed by the dominant Phase 2 axial-
plane foliation, commonly at a low angle to bedding.
Phase 3 structures include crenulations near Point Somes
and broad warping in the northeast of the island (Adams
& Robinson 1977). Chatham Schist has undergone
pumpellyite-actinolite facies metamorphism (Adams &
Robinson 1977; Josephson 1985). Rb-Sr dating suggests
that this occurred during the Early Jurassic (Adams et al.
2008).
Chatham Schist protoliths were deposited in a deep marine
environment with reducing conditions, where black mud
(now black argillaceous schist) was the background deposit.
Intermediate to mafic volcanics are represented by tuff
and basalt layers (now greenschists). An influx of more
silicic material followed, and at the top of the section lithic
and clastic materials were derived from a metamorphic
terrain (Adams & Robinson 1977). U-Pb ages of detrital
zircons are Early to Middle Triassic, and along with the
geochemical characteristics of the rocks, indicate that
(Adams et al. 2008). On mainland New Zealand, no part
of the Rakaia terrane has exactly the compositional or age
characteristics of Chatham Schist; therefore on this map,
Chatham Schist is placed within undifferentiated Torlesse
composite terrane.
Xenoliths of schist and greywacke occur in volcanic rocks
on The Sisters, Mangere, Star Keys and Southeast Island
(Campbell et al. 1993). A garnet-biotite schist xenolith on
Mangere Island (N. Mortimer, pers. comm. 2006) indicates
the existence at depth of higher grade schist than occurs in
outcrop on Chatham Island.
 Rakaia terrane
Permian to Late Triassic sedimentary rocks
Grey, indurated, quartzofeldspathic sandstone and
mudstone of the Triassic Rakaia terrane (Tt) form the
ranges in the northwest of the map area, and also crop out
near Gebbies Pass on Banks Peninsula. A fault-bounded
block of Permian to Triassic Rakaia terrane (YTt) occurs
southwest of Sheffield in the Malvern Hills. Rakaia terrane
is monotonous on a regional scale, and only a few distinctive
conglomerate, volcanic, and mudstone-rich horizons have
been differentiated on the map.
In the map area, three dominant sedimentary lithotypes
(facies) are recognised (Andrews et al. 1976): very
thick-bedded to massive sandstone, thick- to very thick-
bedded graded sandstone with minor mudstone, and
thin- to medium-bedded graded sandstone and mudstone
(Fig. 20 and back cover). Younging directions have been
determined from graded bedding, cross bedding, and load
casts (Figs 20 and 21). Rakaia terrane sandstone is typically
poorly to moderately sorted, fine- to medium-grained, and
contains lithic fragments of felsic volcanics (MacKinnon
1983). Sandstone beds locally include angular, unsorted
A Scattered Torlessia, Titahia and Terebellina agglutinated
B near Rakaia (cross-section C-C), and eastern limits are
Figure 21 Examples of sedimentary way-up indicators in
Rakaia terrane rocks.
A: Cross bedding in a sandstone/mudstone graded bed
at Gorge Bridge on the Waimakariri River. Grading and
truncation of ripples show that the bed youngs upwards.
B: Load casts at the base of a sandstone bed, on the
Puketeraki Range. Photo: M.S. Rattenbury.
rip-up fragments of grey mudstone, and comminuted leaf
and wood fragments forming carbonaceous laminations.
Carbonaceous mudstone and very thin coal seams,
interbedded with sandstone, occur in the Selwyn River
North Branch.
Three types of distinctive lithology are locally differentiated
on the map. Black massive mudstone horizons (Tta) are
typically up to 150 m thick. One such horizon at Broken
River contains interbeds of fine sand and shell debris
(Andrews 1974). Mappable conglomerate lenses (Ttc) are
not common and are rarely more than a few tens of metres
thick. At Mt Binser, clasts include quartzofeldspathic
mudstone and sandstone, vein quartz, chert, and felsic
volcanics, whereas in the lower Okuku River the clasts are
mainly limestone (Botsford 1983). A basaltic volcanogenic
association, including chert and red or green mudstone
(Ttv; Fig. 22) is locally mapped either as horizons or as
units. One such occurrence is up to 250 m thick at Red
Peak in the Torlesse Range. Some basalt exhibits pillow
form and evidence of spilitisation. Minor chert beds (not
differentiated on the map) are scattered throughout the
terrane and are particularly common at Gebbies Pass,
where they are interbedded with black mudstone (Sewell
et al. 1988).
tube fossils indicate a Triassic, probably Late Triassic, age
for the bulk of the Rakaia terrane rocks (Tt) in the map area
(Campbell & Warren 1965; Andrews et al. 1976; Sewell et
al. 1988). The bivalves Monotis (Warepan) and Halobia
(Oretian-Warepan) in the Lees Valley-Ashley Gorge
area confirm a Late Triassic age in the east of the terrane
(Andrews et al. 1976). Permian-Triassic rocks (YTt) in the
Malvern Hills contain Permian Atomodesma (Adams et al.
2005) and Late Triassic ?Monotis (Speight 1928) fossils.
Detrital zircon ages from greywacke in the Selwyn River
are no younger than Late Permian (Adams et al. 2007).
The northwestern limit of the Permian-Triassic rocks is
placed arbitrarily at the High Peak Fault. An arbitrary
southern boundary is inferred under the Canterbury Plains
unknown.
Zones of mlange (YTv) within the Permian-Triassic rocks
of the Malvern Hills are characterised by discontinuous
lenses of deformed sandstone within pervasively sheared
mudstone (broken formation), containing scattered exotic
blocks that include basaltic volcanics, limestone, chert, and
red and green mudstone (see p. 21). The blocks are elongate
and range in length from less than 10 m to more than
1 km (Fig. 22). Boundaries between the mlange units and
adjacent Rakaia rocks are either faulted or are represented
by a gradual change in the degree of deformation.
Two depositional environments have been inferred for
the Rakaia terrane clastic rocks. These are large, deep
submarine fans fed by channelised turbidity currents
(Howell 1981; MacKinnon 1983), and relatively shallow-
water deltas (Andrews 1974). It is possible that both
environments existed at different times and locations
(Andrews et al. 1976).
17
Metamorphism and structure of Rakaia terrane
In adjacent QMAP sheets, Rakaia terrane rocks have been
subdivided into several textural zones (after Bishop 1974
and Turnbull et al. 2001). In the Canterbury part of the
map area, all Rakaia terrane rocks are t.z. I. Slaty cleavage
and fracture cleavage are locally developed in finer grained
lithologies, especially near mesoscale fold hinges. Burial
and deformation have metamorphosed Rakaia terrane
rocks to prehnite-pumpellyite facies, although lower grade
(zeolite facies) rocks occur in the Ashley River gorge
area and around the upper Kowai Bridge near Porters
Pass (MacKinnon 1980; Adams 2003; Fig. 23). Regional
metamorphism affected much of the Rakaia terrane by the
Jurassic (Adams 2003; Adams & Maas 2004).
A
B C
18
The overall structure of Rakaia terrane rocks is difficult
to resolve due to a general lack of marker horizons, poor
age control, multiple folding events and widespread faults
and shear zones. Formlines on the map illustrate the
generalised orientations of bedding. Despite considerable
local variations, bedding most commonly strikes northwest.
Notable exceptions include the Torlesse Range where the
strike is northeast and the Selwyn River North Branch
where the rocks strike south. Strikes in the Permian-
Triassic rocks (YTt) are variable and generally discordant
with those in adjacent Triassic rocks (Tt). Everywhere, the
dip of bedding is generally steep (between 60 and 90).
Figure 22 Minor lithologies within the
Rakaia terrane.
A: Fluted limestone exotic block in mlange,
on Limestone Saddle in the Lady Barker
Range, Malvern Hills.
Photo: D.B. Townsend.
B: Bedded and folded red chert on the
northern side of Nomans Land, near Winding
Creek in the upper Waimakariri area.
Photo: G.S. Leonard.
C: Interlayered basaltic volcanics and chert
on Red Peak, Torlesse Range.

METAMORPHIC MINERAL ISOGRAD
zeolite out
METAMORPHIC ZONE
prehnite-pumpellyite
zeolite
Figure 23 Metamorphic facies within rocks of the Torlesse composite terrane in Canterbury.
In some places, reversals in the younging directions of the
strata define macroscopic folds, even though the fold hinges
are rarely exposed. Smaller (mesoscopic) associated folds
are not uncommon (back cover). These folds are generally
tight and gently to moderately plunging. Multiple
generations of deformation are evident in the Waimakariri
(Otarama) Gorge. Near Otarama, an inverted syncline
attests to at least two phases of deformation while near Mt
Rosa, tight macroscopic folds have been refolded about
steeply-plunging axes. In the Malvern Hills, the timing
of tight folding (and metamorphism) of Permian-Triassic
Rakaia terrane rocks is constrained by an unconformable
cover of relatively undeformed Middle Jurassic rocks (see
below).
Zones of intensely sheared greywacke along faults (crush
zones) are in some places wide enough to be shown on
the map. A notable example is along the Townshend and
Glentui faults, where a 250 m-wide crush zone preferentially
follows a band of red and green mudstone (Cowan 1992).
N
0 10 20
Kilometres
Jurassic sedimentary and igneous rocks
Near Mt Pember, on the Puketeraki Range, and at the
southwest end of Lees Valley, small stocks and dikes of
Pember Diorite (Jtd) intrude Triassic Rakaia terrane rocks
(Fig. 24). Pember Diorite is a microdiorite consisting
primarily of plagioclase, pyroxene, amphibole and biotite,
with accessory quartz and K-feldspar. Ar-Ar dating of the
amphiboles indicates an Early Jurassic age of intrusion
(Jongens et al. in press). Like the surrounding Rakaia
terrane, the Pember Diorite is metamorphosed to prehnite-
pumpellyite facies.
The Jurassic Wakaepa Formation (Jtw; after Speight
1928) is exposed in the Malvern Hills southwest of
Sheffield. The formation comprises brown-grey, fine to
coarse sandstone interbedded with carbonaceous mudstone,
thick conglomerate, and thin coal lenses. Plant stems
and leaf fossils are abundant within the sandstone and
mudstone (Fig. 25). The conglomerates, which are up to
19
60 m thick, consist of well-rounded to subangular Rakaia-
type sandstone and siltstone clasts, with sparse granite
and red chert clasts (Speight 1928). The sandstone matrix
crumbles when weathered. Plant fossils include the ferns
Cladophlebis and Coniopteris, cycad-like Taeniopteris,
and the conifer Elatocladus (Arber 1917) that are typical
of, but not restricted to, the Jurassic (E. M. Kennedy pers.
comm. 2008). Spores and pollen indicate a Middle Jurassic
age (J.I. Raine, unpublished data 2006). Deposition most
likely occurred in a terrestrial environment.
Wakaepa Formation beds are gently to moderately dipping
(<60) and are less deformed than adjacent, steeply dipping,
Permian-Triassic Rakaia terrane rocks. Zeolite facies
Figure 24 Typical fine- to medium-grained texture of
Pember Diorite in a polished hand specimen from a dike at
the southwestern end of Lees Valley.
Figure 25 Fragments of the fern Cladophlebis in fine
sandstone of the mid-Jurassic Wakaepa Formation. The
specimen is from an outcrop east of the Selwyn River in the
Malvern Hills near Whitecliffs. Photo: M. Terezow.
20
metamorphism has imparted a moderate induration, less
than that of adjacent prehnite-pumpellyite facies Rakaia
terrane rocks. Boundaries with older rocks are interpreted
as faults, except near Flagpole Stream where a basal
unconformity is indicated (Speight 1928). The Wakaepa
Formation represents a cover sequence deposited on
deformed and exhumed Rakaia terrane rocks (MacKinnon
1983; Adams 2003).
Pahau terrane
Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous sedimentary rocks
The Pahau terrane (Ktp) underlies only a small part of this
map, and crops out in the cores of Late Cenozoic anticlines
between Waipara River North Branch and Motunau Beach.
Like the Rakaia terrane, Pahau terrane consists of grey,
indurated, quartzofeldspathic sandstone and mudstone,
but is younger (Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous). Pahau
terrane sandstone is typically poorly to moderately sorted,
fine- to medium-grained, and contains a higher percentage
of sedimentary and felsic volcanic lithic fragments than
Rakaia terrane sandstone (MacKinnon 1983). Pahau
sandstones are generally slightly lighter in colour, slightly
less indurated, and have a more sugary appearance than
similar low-grade Rakaia terrane sandstone. Sedimentary
lithotypes in the map area include very thick-bedded to
massive sandstone, and lesser amounts of more thinly
bedded, graded, fine sandstone and mudstone (Nicol 1991).
The massive sandstone lithotype is traceable over several
kilometres. The areas of other rock types, such as minor
basaltic volcanics and red chert, are too small to show on
this map. The graded sandstone and mudstone lithotype
may contain sparse calcareous concretions and slightly
calcareous horizons. Dolomitic limestone beds occur east
of the Waipara River North Branch (Nicol 1991). Thick
basaltic volcanics and conglomerate mapped in the adjacent
Kaikoura sheet (Rattenbury et al. 2006) are not known in
the Christchurch map area.
Fossils are sparsely distributed in the Pahau terrane
(Andrews et al. 1976), and none have been identified in
the map area. Immediately north of the map sheet, in the
Hurunui and Kaiwara rivers, macrofauna are considered
Late Jurassic (Campbell & Warren 1965; Speden 1975), and
dinoflagellates give mixed Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous
ages (Wilson 1984; Wilson & Helby 1988). U-Pb zircon
ages from conglomerate clasts at Ethelton, 15 km north of
the map area and close to the Hurunui fossils, indicate an
Early Cretaceous age for the source rocks (Wandres et al.
2004a). Further northwest, spores and pollen in the Pahau
River are Early Cretaceous (Raine 1977).
Depositional environments of the Pahau terrane, like
the Rakaia terrane, have been interpreted as deep water
submarine fans (Johnston 1990; Reay 1993) and shallow
water marine fan-deltas (Bassett & Orlowski 2004). It is
likely that both environments may have been present at
different locations and at different times (Andrews et al.
1976).
 Broken formation, mlange, exotic blocks and knockers

The amount of deformation within the Esk Head belt varies greatly according to the style of tectonism and
differences in the competence of the rocks.

Sequences of alternating bedded sandstone and mudstone are particularly susceptible to tectonic shearing,
because the mudstone layers are weaker and deform more easily. The resulting deformed rock consists of
discontinuous lozenges of sandstone enveloped in sheared mudstone. Where there is still a sense of sedimentary
continuity, such rocks are termed broken formation (Fig. 26). Greater intensities of deformation lead to isolated
sandstone blocks oriented chaotically within a sheared mudstone matrix. Where exotic blocks are present, the
rock is referred to as mlange.

Exotic blocks are rocks that formed in different locations from those of their enclosing rocks. The commonest
example in Torlesse rocks is that of deep ocean floor rocks (submarine basalt, foraminiferal limestone, radiolarian
chert, and red or green mudstone) that have been tectonically incorporated within continent-margin sediments
(quartzofeldspathic sandstone and mudstone).

In mlange (for example, within the Esk Head belt) the block and mudstone matrix texture is seen at all scales
typically, mudstone-rich mlange containing pebble-size blocks anastomoses around metre-size blocks. At
the largest scale, Botsford (1983) maps mlange anastomosing around relatively intact, interbedded sandstone/
mudstone rafts up to several hundred metres across. Characteristic hummocky or knocker topography may
develop where erosion of the softer mudstone matrix leaves the more resistant blocks standing above the general
land surface (Fig. 26).

Metamorphism and structure of Pahau terrane
In the map area, the textural grade of Pahau terrane rocks is
t.z. I and their metamorphic grade is zeolite facies (Fig. 23;
Nicol 1991). Bedding generally dips steeply and strikes
northwest, as illustrated by formlines on the map. Two
phases of pre-Late Cretaceous folding are evident: one
large-scale and plunging gently to the northwest (Wilson
1963) or southeast (Nicol & Wise 1992), and the other,
smaller scale and steeply plunging (Nicol & Wise 1992).
These phases of folding occurred before deposition of the
overlying Late Cretaceous and younger sedimentary rocks
(Nicol & Wise 1992).
Esk Head belt
Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous sedimentary and
volcanic rocks
Between the relatively well-bedded Pahau and Rakaia
terranes is a zone of more sheared rocks, the Esk Head
belt (Te; after Begg & Johnston 2000). The zone has also
been referred to as the Esk Head subterrane (Bradshaw
et al. 1981; Silberling et al. 1988), incorporating the Esk
Head Mlange of Bradshaw (1973). On the western side,
and making up the majority of the belt in the map area, is
a mlange (Tem) consisting of highly deformed, bedded
sandstone and mudstone with exotic blocks and slivers
of basaltic volcanics, chert, and limestone. The mlange
is up to 11 km wide and contains a greater abundance of
mudstone and exotic material than the Pahau and Rakaia
terranes (MacKinnon 1983). East of the mlange, the Esk
Head belt is gradational into Pahau terrane and consists of
less deformed bedded sandstone/mudstone lithotypes (Te)
and minor zones of highly disrupted rock. Exotic blocks
of basalt and related red mudstone (Tev) are comparatively
rare.
The Esk Head belt consists mainly of highly deformed
quartzofeldspathic sedimentary rocks metamorphosed
to zeolite facies (Fig. 23; Botsford 1983). Very thick to
massive sandstone and thin- to medium-bedded sandstone
and mudstone are the main lithotypes and are very similar
to those seen in Pahau and Rakaia terranes. Minor
conglomerate is also present. Basalt, some with pillow
structure, is by far the most common exotic lithology,
followed by chert and relatively rare limestone and red
mudstone (Silberling et al. 1988). Minor tuff and volcanic
breccia are associated with basalt. Exotic blocks vary
widely in size: pebble-size clasts, 1 to 10 m blocks, and
volcanic slivers 300 m long (Botsford 1983). In some
exotic blocks, limestone, chert, and red mudstone are in
depositional contact with basalt, suggesting that these
exotic lithologies are derived from oceanic sea floor and/or
seamounts (Silberling et al. 1988). The structural grain of
the Esk Head belt strikes southeast and dips steeply. Intact
bedding, broken formation shear fabric, and mlange fabric
are subparallel (Botsford 1983).
Fossils in the Esk Head mlange unit vary from Late
Triassic to Late Jurassic in age. The oldest fossils found
are within exotic blocks. Limestone in the Okuku River has
yielded the bivalve Monotis and the conodont Gondolella
steinbergensis, both of Late Triassic age (Silberling et
al. 1988). Similar limestone blocks with bivalves and
conodonts occur on the Pancake Range. Radiolaria in a
chert block at Brothers Station also indicate a Late Triassic
age (Silberling et al. 1988). Spores and pollen from bedded
siltstone in the upper south branch of the Waipara River are
probably of Early to Middle Jurassic age (M34/f14022 ; J.I.
Raine unpublished data 1982). The Late Jurassic ammonite
Idoceras speighti was found in a boulder in the Karetu
River (M34/f8565; Speden 1975), and a latest Jurassic
2
Locality from the New Zealand Fossil Record File

21
 A C

Figure 26 Esk Head belt broken formation and mlange.

A & B: Broken formation is a common texture in the Esk Head belt, and results from layer-parallel shearing in thin-
to medium-bedded sandstone and mudstone. The sandstone has been boudinaged into discontinuous lozenges and
enveloped in sheared mudstone. A is from Birdseye Road, Ashley Forest, and B is from Okuku Pass.
C: Blocks of sandstone in a highly sheared mudstone matrix on the Pancake Range, close to the southern edge of the Esk
Head belt. As it includes exotic blocks nearby, this rock is a mlange.
D: Knocker topography associated with Esk Head belt rocks on the Pancake Range. The dark outcrop just beyond the
figure consists of basaltic volcanic rock.

22
Figure 27 Distinctive cavernously weathered outcrops of Gebbies Rhyolite near Gebbies Pass, Banks Peninsula.
belemnite Belemnopsis aucklandica has been recorded in
a boulder in the Okuku River just north of the map sheet
(M33/f8519; McKellar et al. 1962; Bradshaw 1973). Both
boulders are probably derived from the mlange. No fossils
have been found in the remainder of the belt east of the
mlange, but this may be as young as Early Cretaceous as
indicated by fossiliferous Esk Head rocks north of the map
area (Johnston 1990; Rattenbury et al. 2006).
LATE CRETACEOUS TO PLIOCENE ROCKS OF
CANTERBURY
The Cretaceous-Cenozoic sedimentary rocks of Canterbury
constitute a transgressive-regressive megasequence,
the Kaikoura Synthem of Carter (1988), which is termed
a first-order cycle by King et al. (1999). This sequence
unconformably overlies Torlesse composite terrane
basement rocks. The transgressive-regressive succession is
punctuated by a number of unconformities, caused by local
and regional tectonic activity, eustatic sea level changes,
sediment starvation and/or changes to ocean currents. The
oldest sedimentary rocks above the basement in Canterbury
are Late Cretaceous terrestrial deposits. A major marine
transgression began at about 80 Ma (Haumurian) and
culminated in the maximum inundation of the New Zealand
landmass in the Oligocene, when a condensed section of
generally calcareous rocks was deposited. Regressive
sedimentation in Canterbury began in the Late Oligocene,
when shallow marine deposits passed upward, with
increasing amounts of terrigenous sediment, into thick,
non-marine clastic deposits. Volcanic episodes occurred
during the Late Cretaceous, Early Eocene, Oligocene, and
Late Miocene.
Photo CN21060/18: D.L. Homer.
Late Cretaceous rocks
Mount Somers Volcanics Group comprises intermediate
to silicic volcanic rocks which crop out along the western
margin of the Canterbury Plains and on Banks Peninsula.
In the Christchurch map area, rhyolite and andesite occur
in the Malvern Hills, in the Gebbies and McQueens valleys
on Banks Peninsula, and in the J.D. George-1 drillhole
near Ashburton. Mount Somers Volcanics Group rocks
unconformably overlie Rakaia terrane basement.
At Mt Misery in the Malvern Hills, flow-banded porphyritic
rhyolite (Kmr), apparently extruded as domes, has been
dated as 91.30.6 Ma (K-Ar; Adams & Oliver 1979;
Tappenden 2003). Small rhyolite dikes cut Rakaia terrane
rocks northwest of Mt Misery. Porphyritic and lithic-rich
ignimbrite (Kmi) consists of several flows, possibly with
some associated andesitic lava flows or dikes. Ignimbrite
at Rakaia Gorge, west of the Christchurch map area,
has yielded ages of 94.80.7 Ma (K-Ar; Adams 1979),
94.20.8 Ma (Ar-Ar; Tappenden 2003) and 971.5 Ma
(SHRIMP; Tappenden 2003). Despite these older ages,
field relations suggest that ignimbrite generally overlies
rhyolite (Tappenden 2003).
On Banks Peninsula, McQueens Andesite (Kma) crops
out in a small area at the head of McQueens Valley, and
consists of dark grey to black, vesicular, andesitic lava
flows, volcanic breccia, and rare tuff (Sewell et al. 1988;
Tappenden 2003). Lava flows 210 metres thick are
separated by breccia. McQueens Andesite has an Ar-Ar age
of 912.6 Ma (Tappenden 2003). Gebbies Rhyolite (Kmr)
consists of brown to grey, vesicular, flow banded rhyolite,
with minor dacite and pitchstone, and forms cavernously
23
weathered outcrops that mark the eroded remnants of
lava domes (Sewell et al. 1988; Tappenden 2003; Fig.
27). Associated siltstone, sandstone and carbonaceous
mudstone plant beds are exposed southwest of Gebbies
Pass (Sewell et al. 1988). Together with conglomerate in a
drillhole at Charteris Bay (Field, Browne et al. 1989), they
are included with Gebbies Rhyolite on this map.
Gebbies Rhyolite overlies McQueens Andesite at the head
of McQueens Valley, but elsewhere rests unconformably
on Rakaia terrane rocks, and was probably extruded from
several vents. Barley et al. (1988) consider that Gebbies
Rhyolite is not genetically related to McQueens Andesite,
but probably represents magma produced from Torlesse
sedimentary rocks. Inherited zircons in the rhyolite support
this interpretation (Tappenden 2003).
The J.D. George-1 drillhole encountered hard porphyritic
andesite at 1431 m, passing downwards into rhyolite, and
ending at 1647 m in fine dark grey andesite (Wood 1969).
These igneous rocks are correlated with Mount Somers
Volcanics Group.
Monro Conglomerate (Kem) is discontinuously exposed
in the Malvern Hills, where it overlies rhyolite (Mount
Somers Volcanics Group) or rocks of the Rakaia terrane.
The lower part of the formation, about 70 m thick, consists
of conglomerate and pebbly mudstone with rounded
rhyolite clasts (Fig. 28), while the upper part contains more
fine-grained material (sandstone and mudstone with minor
coal lenses) and greywacke clasts. This part is poorly
exposed it may be as much as 880 m thick (Andrews
et al. 1987) although at Rakaia Gorge, to the west of the
map area, the whole formation is only about 200 m thick
(Cox 1926; Cox & Barrell 2007). Monro Conglomerate
is interpreted as a localised braided-river deposit filling
a fault-angle depression (Andrews et al. 1987; Mathews
1989) and fossil pollen dates it as middle Late Cretaceous
(Teratan-Piripauan; Field, Browne et al. 1989).
24
Latest Cretaceous to Early Oligocene rocks
The base of the Eyre Group sedimentary succession consists
of quartzose fluvial deposits that accumulated on river
plains, in swamps and in estuaries. The overlying marine,
quartzose sandstone, mudstone, greensand, calcareous
mudstone and limestone were deposited in environments
that ranged from shoreface to outer shelf (Field, Browne
et al. 1989; King et al. 1999). The sedimentary rocks have
been described under many formation names (Fig. 29).
Details of individual formations, lateral facies changes
and unconformities within the Eyre Group are provided
by Newman & Bradshaw (1981), Browne & Field (1985),
Andrews et al. (1987) and Morgans et al. (2005). In
the QMAP Christchurch area, Eyre Group ranges in age
from Late Cretaceous (Haumurian) to Early Oligocene
(Whaingaroan).
Eyre Group rocks rest unconformably on Torlesse composite
terrane or Mount Somers Volcanics Group rocks, apart
from a few localities in the Malvern Hills where Monro
Conglomerate intervenes. Eyre Group is extensively
exposed at the western margin of the Canterbury Plains
and to a lesser extent in the inland basins. There are a
few outcrops near the head of Lyttelton Harbour, and Eyre
Group rocks have also been encountered in stratigraphic
drillholes and petroleum exploration wells.
The lowermost Eyre Group unit is the largely non-marine
Broken River Formation (lKb), consisting of pale grey
quartzose sandstone, carbonaceous mudstone and claystone,
with minor conglomerate and coal seams near the base (Fig.
30). It is commonly about 40 m thick but reaches 200 m in
the Whitecliffs area (Andrews et al. 1987) and 240 m in the
mid-Waipara section (Morgans et al. 2005). Coal seams
rarely exceed 5 m in thickness.
In the southwestern part of the Canterbury range front,
Broken River Formation is conformably overlain by
Figure 28 Float boulder
of Monro Conglomerate
near Cairn Hill in the
Malvern Hills. The matrix is
feldspathic, and the clasts
include Torlesse rocks and
Mount Somers Volcanics
Group rhyolite. These
features help to distinguish
Monro Conglomerate
from conglomerates in the
Rakaia terrane and the
Broken River Formation.
Photo: J.G. Begg.
 NW SW NE

Mt Grey area

Waipara area
Malvern Hills
Broken River

Oxford area
Esk River

Burnt Hill

Motunau
Glentui
Avoca
0
1.8
Pleist.
Kowai
Plio. Kowai Formation Greta Fmn.
Fmn.
5.3
Greta
Coalgate Bentonite*

Motunau Group
Fmn.*
Brechin Harper Hills Basalt Oxford Basalt* Burnt
Miocene

Fmn. Hill Tokama

Wairiri Bluff Basalt* Group Siltstone* Mt Brown
Volcaniclastite* Sandpit Tuff* Formation*
Chalk Hill Clay* (Whiterock Lst.*)
Chalk Quarry Sst.*
Waikari Formation*
24
Omihi Omihi Formation
Omihi Fmn.
Oligocene

Thomas Fmn. (Berrydale Grnsnd*) (Weka Pass Stone*)

Fmn.
Amuri L. Amuri
Amuri Lst. Amuri Limestone
34 Esk Formation Lst.
Feary Greensand*

Karetu Sandstone*
Iron Homebush Sandstone*
Eocene

Creek
Green- Ashley Mudstone*
sand*

View Hill Volcanics

Eyre Group
56
Paleocene

Charteris Waipara Greensand*

Charteris Waipara Greensand* Bay
Bay
Sandstone*
Sst.* Loburn Mudstone*
65

Conway Formation

Broken River Formation

Late Cretaceous

Monro Conglomerate

Mount Somers Volcanics Group

100
Early Cretaceous
and older

Torlesse composite terrane

Figure 29 Cretaceous and Cenozoic stratigraphy of northwestern and northeastern parts of the Christchurch map area.
The diagram highlights periods of deposition (coloured) in relation to times of non-deposition or subsequent erosion (grey
background). Previous work has established a large number of formation names (as well as selected members shown in
parentheses). The stratigraphic units marked with asterisks are not differentiated on the map.
After Browne & Field (1985), Andrews et al. (1987) and Field, Browne et al. (1989).

25
 A

B
D

C E

Figure 30 Eyre Group sedimentary and volcanic rocks.

A: Broken River Formation coal-bearing quartzose sandstone and claystone, on the north bank of Broken River near the
junction with Winding Creek.
B: Conway Formation silty sandstone with distinctive yellowish weathering and scattered large concretions, in Birds Eye
Stream, Waipara River South Branch.
C: Quartzose Charteris Bay Sandstone in a quarry face at Orton Bradley Park on Banks Peninsula.
Photo CN20891/36: D.L. Homer.
D: A block of basaltic pillow lava within tuffaceous sediments in the lower part of the Esk Formation. Exposure in the
Brechin Burn tributary of the Esk River in the upper Waimakariri area.
E: Amuri Limestone in the Brechin Burn contains invertebrate burrows (Thalassinoides) filled from above with glauconitic
sandstone; the radiating pattern above the hammer head is a Zoophycos trace fossil.

26
marine, dark grey, massive sandy siltstone and sandstone
of the Conway Formation (lKc), dated by dinoflagellates
as Late Cretaceous (Upper Haumurian; Wilson et al. 2005).
Its characteristic spherical concretions (Fig. 30) contain
marine reptile bones and other macrofossils (Andrews et al.
1987). In the northeastern part of the map, Late Cretaceous
Eyre Group rocks have been combined as lKe.
The overlying marine sedimentary rocks of the Eyre Group
at the Canterbury range front are of Paleocene and Eocene
age. Dark grey, concretionary, silty sandstone (at the base),
greensand, and pale grey, glauconitic quartzose sandstone
are mapped as Pe. Above these lies pale grey, burrowed
quartzose sandstone with minor greensand at the top near
Oxford (Ee). Along the central and northern parts of
the range front, these rocks and their lateral correlatives,
including significant mudstone, are combined on the map
as PEe. Formation names are summarised in Fig. 29.
View Hill Volcanics (Eev) crop out in the Eyre River-
Oxford area and near Coalgate, and are also known from the
Leeston-1 and Resolution-1 wells (Gregg 1964; McLennan
1981; Andrews et al. 1987). This formation consists of
shallow marine sedimentary as well as volcanic rocks,
and includes interbedded basaltic flows, pillow lava, tuff,
mudstone, sandstone, limestone and rare volcanic breccia.
It also includes a dolerite intrusion near Coalgate. View Hill
Volcanics are part of the Eyre Group, with marine fossils
indicating an Early Eocene age (Waipawan to Heretaungan;
Andrews et al. 1987).
The uppermost unit of the Eyre Group in the Canterbury
foothills is Amuri Limestone (Oea). It is a distinctive
and typically hard, pale grey, thinly bedded, fine-grained
limestone. Oxford Chalk is a local and less cemented facies
(van der Lingen et al. 1978; Andrews et al. 1987). The
uppermost part of Amuri Limestone commonly contains
invertebrate burrows infilled with material from the
overlying Omihi Formation. Although Amuri Limestone is
of Paleocene to Eocene age further north (Rattenbury et al.
2006), in the Christchurch map area it is Early Oligocene
in age (Whaingaroan; Andrews et al. 1987; Field, Browne
et al. 1989).
In the inland Canterbury basins, the most extensive exposures
of Eyre Group are in the Broken River, Avoca and Esk
River areas. Broken River Formation (lKb) is succeeded
by marine rocks including fine, glauconitic, quartzose

Figure 31 The Weka Pass area of northern Canterbury is dominated by limestone dip slopes and escarpments. The
prominent white cliff is sandy limestone of the Omihi Formation, the lowest unit of the Motunau Group. The more distant
ridge is mapped as undifferentiated Motunau Group, which here consists mainly of Mt Brown Formation. Weka Creek
(foreground) cuts into the underlying Eyre Group sedimentary rocks and Pahau terrane greywacke.
Photo CN14433/6: D.L. Homer.

27
sandstone that grades upwards into dark greensand (PEe).
A
Esk Formation (Oee) glauconitic fine sandstone (locally
cross-bedded) and sandy siltstone unconformably overlie
older Eyre Group or Torlesse rocks (Newman & Bradshaw
1981; McLennan & Bradshaw 1984). The unconformity is
marked by a basal conglomerate in places. In the Brechin
Burn, Esk Formation is associated with basaltic pillow
breccia, tuff and a stock (Oev). The youngest Eyre Group
unit in the inland basins is pale grey, fine-grained, burrowed
limestone which is correlated with the widespread Amuri
Limestone (Oea; Fig. 30).

On Banks Peninsula, Broken River Formation is known

only from a drillhole at Charteris Bay. The rest of the Eyre
Group, exposed in a few places nearby, consists of quartzose
sandstone that is locally glauconitic with thin beds of
mudstone, tuffaceous sandstone and gritty sandstone (PEe; B
Sewell et al. 1988).

At the top of the Eyre Group, one or more unconformities

mark time gaps of several million years (Andrews et al.
1987). For example, the bored and phosphatised surface that
commonly separates Amuri Limestone from the overlying
Omihi Formation represents a 3-million-year time gap.
Elsewhere, the unconformity is developed on older Eyre
Group rocks and may represent a period of 5 to 10 million
years. The unconformities in this part of the succession
have been referred to as the Marshall Paraconformity
(Carter & Landis 1972), but Lever (2007) regards this as an
oversimplification and recommends abandoning the term.

At Avoca, the Thomas Formation (Ot) consists of

carbonate-cemented basaltic tuff intruded by dikes and
sills of similar composition (McLennan 1981). Just west
of the map area in Castle Hill basin, Thomas Formation
is predominantly limestone. Marine microfossils give an
Oligocene (Whaingaroan-Duntroonian) age. Gage (1970)
inferred that Thomas Formation is conformable on the
underlying Eyre Group. C

A small plug of olivine nephelinite (Ov) occurs beside

a fault at Mounseys Creek, on the range front north of
the Eyre River near View Hill. Its age is 30 Ma (K-Ar;
McLennan & Weaver 1984) but its geochemical affinities
are unknown.

Late Oligocene to Pliocene rocks

Motunau Group sedimentary rocks are laterally variable

and have been previously mapped under several formation
names (Fig. 29). These rocks are widespread in northern
Canterbury and beneath the mid-Canterbury plains (see
Section C-C), but in the inland basins are restricted to
small infaulted outliers. Motunau Group marks a period
of mainly shallow marine sedimentation that culminated in
marine regression. In the Christchurch map area, it ranges
in age from Late Oligocene (Duntroonian) to Late Pliocene
(Nukumaruan; Browne & Field 1985).
Much of the Motunau Group is undifferentiated on the map,
but some formations are shown where exposure and map
Figure 32 Motunau Group sedimentary rocks.
A: Greywacke-clast conglomerate and sandstone of
Brechin Formation dips 65 southeast at this outcrop in the
Esk River (upper Waimakariri area).
B: Silty fine sandstone of Greta Formation, northeast of
Motunau Beach, shows very large-scale trough cross-
bedding.
C: Siltstone, mudstone and lignite within Kowai Formation
at Okuku River near Whiterock.

28
scale allow. Undifferentiated Motunau Group (Mn) includes
blue-grey, calcareous, sandy siltstone; brown, calcareous
sandstone (locally with limestone or minor fossiliferous
greywacke-clast conglomerate); and grey calcareous,
glauconitic, sandy siltstone. Along the Canterbury range
front the basal unit of Motunau Group is Omihi Formation
(Onl), which consists of hard, glauconitic sandy limestone
in the Waipara area (Weka Pass Stone; Fig. 31) and
calcareous greensand further southwest (Andrews 1963;
Browne & Field 1985; Andrews et al. 1987). In the inland
basins, Brechin Formation (Mne) mainly comprises
fluvial conglomerate with greywacke clasts, with some
gabbro-clast conglomerate, marine sandstone and minor
carbonaceous mudstone near the base (Newman &
Bradshaw 1981; Fig. 32). In the upper part of Motunau
Group, Pliocene-age Greta Formation (^ng) consists of
blue-grey, fine sandy siltstone, mudstone and minor debris-
flow conglomerate, and is the lateral equivalent of the
more widespread Kowai Formation further west and south.
Some concretions within the upper part of Motunau Group
in northern Canterbury contain well-preserved fossils of
crabs and lobsters (Feldmann et al. 2006).
Brown, weathered, greywacke-clast conglomerate
with interbedded sandstone, siltstone, mudstone and
carbonaceous layers more common near the base (Kowai
Formation, ^k; Fig. 32) occurs widely in central and
northern Canterbury. The entire formation was penetrated
in the J.D. George-1 well, where it is 650 m thick, and
similar thicknesses occur in other drillholes and sections
(Andrews et al. 1987). In many places the lower part is
marine with scattered shellbeds. Shallow water macrofauna
give Pliocene ages at Kowai River and the Kowai-1 well,
with some Late Miocene ages at Resolution-1 (Andrews et
al. 1987).
Burnt Hill Group occurs in the Oxford and Harper Hills
areas, and on Banks Peninsula. It overlies Eyre Group, and
is laterally equivalent to part of Motunau Group (Andrews et
al. 1987). Burnt Hill Group is Miocene in age and consists
of basaltic flows and volcaniclastic rocks, interbedded with
sedimentary rocks. Harper Hills Basalt (Muv) consists
of up to three dark grey basaltic flows, the oldest and most
extensive of which is 15 m thick (Carlson et al. 1980). The
remainder of the group basalt breccia, flows and tuff,
feldspathic sandstone and minor smectitic claystone is
shown as undifferentiated (Muu). Near Coalgate, Harper
Hills Basalt is disconformably overlain by smectitic clay
interpreted as a freshwater deposit (Coalgate Bentonite;
Carlson & Rodgers 1974). On Banks Peninsula, Bradley
Sandstone (Mub) consists of white quartzose sandstone,
slightly carbonaceous or pebbly in places (Sewell et al.
1988). It is exposed only at Charteris Bay.
Igneous rocks of Banks Peninsula
Banks Peninsula forms the largest accumulation of
Cenozoic volcanic rocks in the South Island. It consists
of Late Miocene rocks erupted from two large overlapping
volcanoes (Lyttelton and Akaroa) with many minor
vents. Four volcanic groups are mapped, following
Sewell (1988): Lyttelton (119.7 Ma), Mt Herbert (9.7
8.0 Ma), Akaroa (9.08.0 Ma), and Diamond Harbour
(7.05.8 Ma). Most comprise basalts, andesites or
trachytes, with many varieties identified on the basis of
their geochemical composition (Fig. 33). The un-grouped
Allandale Rhyolite and Governors Bay Andesite preceded
the main Lyttelton volcano, although they may represent
an early phase of Lyttelton volcanism (Barley et al. 1988).
Mt Herbert Group represents the transition from Lyttelton to
Akaroa volcanism, and Diamond Harbour Group comprises
the youngest volcanic rocks on Banks Peninsula.
Allandale Rhyolite (Mvr) comprises flow-banded
porphyritic rhyolite and dacite lava flows, and domes
(Sewell et al. 1988). Rhyolite breccias are locally exposed
around the bases of eroded domes, and rare tuffs are
interbedded with lava flows. Flow-banded obsidian is a
minor component. Allandale Rhyolite crops out in Charteris
Bay, Governors Bay, on Quail Island, and on the Summit
Road near Gebbies Pass. Barley et al. (1988) obtained an
Rb-Sr age of 10.8 0.1 Ma. Governors Bay Andesite
(Mvg) is genetically related to and conformably overlies
Allandale Rhyolite (Sewell et al. 1988). It consists of flow-
banded porphyritic andesitic lava flows, and is exposed on
the shores of Lyttelton Harbour, particularly at Governors
Bay.
Lyttelton Volcanic Group (Mvl) consists predominantly
of basaltic to trachytic lava flows interbedded with breccia
and tuff, and lava domes (Sewell & Weaver 1990; Fig.
34). These rocks rest unconformably on various older
units (Sewell et al. 1988), including Rakaia terrane,
Mount Somers Volcanics Group, Allandale Rhyolite and
Governors Bay Andesite. A minimum volume of 350 km3
of lava was erupted from Lyttelton Volcano, based on a
diameter of 35 km and an original height of 1500 m (Sewell
et al. 1992). Numerous radial dikes cut the volcanic cone,
some of which fed parasitic domes on its flanks (Shelley
1988); only some are mapped. Shelley (1987) identified
two eruptive centres, but recent analysis of dike and lava
flow orientations led Hampton & Cole (2008) to conclude
that Lyttelton Volcano is more complex than was previously
thought, with 15 eruptive centres.
Mt Herbert Volcanic Group (Mvh) includes basaltic lava
flows and plugs, with minor interbedded volcaniclastic
conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone, carbonaceous mudstone,
and tuff (Fig. 34). These rocks form a significant part of
central Banks Peninsula, and represent the locus of volcanic
activity moving from Lyttelton toward Akaroa (Sewell
1988). A pollen assemblage from intercalated siltstone and
mudstone has yielded a Late Miocene age (Tongaporutuan;
Sewell et al. 1988).
Akaroa Volcanic Group (Mva) mainly comprises basaltic
to trachytic lava flows with some intercalated tuff and
pyroclastic breccia, forming the eastern part of Banks
Peninsula, and centred on Akaroa Harbour (Sewell &
Weaver 1990). Several formations have been identified,
including a trachyte dome on the western side of Akaroa
Harbour. Onawe peninsula, at the head of the harbour, is
29
30
16 Diamond Harbour Volcanic Group
Na2O+K2O Akaroa Volcanic Group
Mt Herbert Volcanic Group
14 Lyttelton Volcanic Group
trachyte Allandale Rhyolite and
sodic alkaline association Governors Bay Andesite
12
benmoreite

10
mugearite
hawaiite
8

n e p h e li n
6

it e
subalkaline association

basanite and basanitoid

4

2
alkali transitional basaltic andesite dacite rhyolite
basalt basalt andesite SiO2
wt%
44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78

Figure 33 Miocene igneous rocks on Banks Peninsula are subdivided according to their geochemical composition. Names are assigned on the basis of analytical data such as the ratio
of alkalis (sodium plus potassium) to silica. This plot shows rock types in the sodic alkaline (above solid line) and subalkaline associations. After Sewell et al. (1992).
A B

D
C
Figure 34 Banks Peninsula volcanic rocks.
A: Castle Rock, on the Port Hills above the Heathcote
Valley, is a well-known landmark and rock climbing area. It
is the remains of a trachyte dome within Lyttelton Volcanic
Group. Photo CN25139/22: D. L. Homer.
B: The Remarkable Dikes, part of the Lyttelton radial dike
swarm, intrude Lyttelton Volcanic Group rocks near Kaituna
Pass (south of Lyttelton Harbour).
Photo CN25063/20: D. L. Homer.
C: Tuffaceous lake beds occur within Mt Herbert Volcanic
Group at Orton Bradley Park. This material was deposited
in a crater lake by basaltic base surges.
Photo CN25540/14: D.L. Homer.
D: A vent plug of Stoddart Basalt (Diamond Harbour Volcanic
Group) at the Halswell quarry shows well-developed sheet
jointing. Photo CN20883/6: D.L. Homer.
E: Many dikes of Akaroa Volcanic Group are visible around
the shoreline of Akaroa Harbour. In these examples at
E Onawe peninsula, the chilled margin shows as a light-
coloured selvage. Photo CN21182/10: D.L. Homer.

31
near the centre of a radial dike swarm and hosts syenite and
minor gabbro intrusions (Mva) (Sewell & Weaver 1990).
Numerous dikes are exposed on the shoreline of Akaroa
Harbour (Fig. 34; Smith 1972), only some of which can be
shown on the map.
Diamond Harbour Volcanic Group (Mvd) rocks are
exposed on the flanks and within the crater of Lyttelton
Volcano. The group includes the Church-type volcanics
of Sewell et al. (1988) and comprises basaltic lava flows,
dikes, vent plugs (Fig. 34), sills and a dome. Minor breccia,
conglomerate, sandstone and carbonaceous mudstone are
interbedded with flows. Near Diamond Harbour a thick
sequence of flows underlies a 5 km-long slope dipping
gently northward into Lyttelton Harbour (Sewell et al.
1988; Fig. 13).
Undifferentiated Cenozoic intrusive rocks
Basaltic to doleritic sills and dikes intrude Rakaia terrane
basement and Late Cretaceous to mid-Cenozoic sedimentary
rocks. These intrusive rocks are represented on the map
by dike symbols. In the Malvern Hills and the Avoca
area, the intrusions have locally metamorphosed Broken
River Formation coal to semi-anthracite (Speight 1928;
McLennan 1981; Duff & Barry 1989). Some dikes can be
linked to extrusive volcanic episodes; those at Avoca, for
example, have similar compositions to Thomas Formation
tuffs (McLennan 1981). However, most are of unknown
age and geochemical affinity (Sewell & Gibson 1988).
Figure 35 The columnar basalt flow at Ohira Bay, on northwestern Chatham Island, is assigned to the Southern Volcanics
(Pitt Island Group).
32
MID-CRETACEOUS TO PLEISTOCENE ROCKS
OF THE CHATHAM ISLANDS
The oldest sedimentary rocks overlying the basement in the
Chatham Islands are middle Cretaceous terrestrial deposits.
A significant volcanic episode in the Late Cretaceous was
followed by marine transgression. Thereafter, marine
sedimentation interspersed with further volcanic eruptive
episodes continued until the Late Pliocene emergence of the
eastern Chatham Rise. Many unconformities occur within
the Cenozoic sedimentary sequence, which is generally
condensed.
Mid-Cretaceous sedimentary rocks
Waihere Bay Group (lKw) of the Chatham Islands consists
of Tupuangi Formation, exposed on the northern part of
Pitt Island, and unexposed units that have been recognised
from seismic surveys of the Chatham region (Wood et al.
1989; Campbell et al. 1993).
Tupuangi Formation mainly consists of weakly indurated,
very fine quartzofeldspathic sandstone and claystone, rich in
carbonaceous material. Conglomerate occurs near the base,
minor discontinuous lignite seams are present throughout
most of the sequence, and tuffaceous layers occur at the
top. A minimum thickness of 240 m is estimated from
composite sections, but geophysical data suggest that the
formation is 700 m thick or more (Campbell et al. 1993).
Photo: I.M. Turnbull.
Waihere Bay Group is inferred to rest unconformably
on Chatham Schist. Fossils include pollen and other
plant remains, and a few estuarine bivalves. The age,
based on palynology, is middle Cretaceous (Motuan to
Teratan; Campbell et al. 1993). Detrital zircons include
a large group of predominantly Early Cretaceous age (90
130 Ma), slightly older than the pollen (Adams et al.
2008), which probably represent initial local volcanism.
Tupuangi Formation was deposited in a gradually subsiding
environment, which allowed a thick sequence of deltaic/
estuarine sediment to accumulate at or just above sea level
(Campbell et al. 1993).
Late Cretaceous volcanic rocks
Pitt Island Group (lKp) comprises volcanogenic rocks
and minor calcareous sedimentary rocks: Kahuitara Tuff,
Southern Volcanics, and associated limestone (Campbell et
al. 1993). These units are grouped on the map.
Kahuitara Tuff occurs on northern Pitt Island, gradationally
overlying Tupuangi Formation (Campbell et al. 1993). It
consists of fossiliferous, massive to well-bedded sandstone
and conglomerate, and minor lapilli tuff of basaltic
composition, and is up to 225 m thick.
Figure 36 Stratified basaltic flows and breccia of the Southern Volcanics form sea cliffs on the southern coast of Chatham
Island. A subhorizontal bench developed on the Southern Volcanics is overlain by brown lag gravels and palagonitic
marine sediments (centre) of the Plio-Pleistocene Mairangi Group. The prominent basalt peaks of The Horns are a young
intrusive element of the Mairangi Group.
The Southern Volcanics form the main southern mass of
Chatham Island and also occur on Pitt Island (Campbell
et al. 1993). East and southwest of the Chatham Islands,
further areas of Cretaceous volcanics are inferred
from magnetic data (Austin et al. 1973). The rocks are
predominantly alkaline olivine basaltic lava flows (Morris
1985a) interbedded with volcanic breccia and tuff. Minor
rock types include trachyandesite, trachybasalt and
trachyte, with some dikes and sills (Campbell et al. 1993).
Hakepa on eastern Pitt Island (Fig. 18) is a trachyte dome.
Columnar basalt at Ohira Bay, northwest Chatham Island
(Fig. 35) is the northernmost outcrop of Pitt Island Group.
Southern Volcanics rest unconformably on Chatham Schist,
or conformably on Kahuitara Tuff on Pitt Island, and are
largely terrestrial deposits. Local marine conditions are
indicated by pillow lavas, some with interstitial limestone,
on southern Chatham Island (Campbell et al. 1993).
Lava flow sequences of Southern Volcanics are at least
300 m thick on the cliffed southern coast of Chatham
Island (Figs 17 and 36). The volcanics thin progressively
to the north (Panter et al. 2006), consistent with a source
in Pitt Strait or southern Chatham Island. The Southern
Volcanics were erupted between 80 and 85 Ma, based on
Ar-Ar ages of 8485 Ma (Panter et al. 2006) and 8085 Ma
Photo: J.G. Begg.
33
(John Tarduno, pers. comm. 2008). Associated limestone
on Pitt and Chatham islands contains microfossils of latest
Cretaceous (Upper Haumurian) age, slightly younger than
these Ar-Ar ages.
Paleogene sedimentary and volcanic rocks
Tioriori Group (PEt) comprises a sequence of glauconite-
rich, locally-derived quartzofeldspathic sandstone and
minor limestone restricted to northwestern Chatham
Island (Campbell et al. 1993). The sequence is marine
and fossiliferous throughout, and lies unconformably on
Chatham Schist. Tioriori Group ranges from late Early
Paleocene to Early Eocene, based on foraminifera and
dinoflagellates, although it also contains many other fossils.
The basal Takatika Grit comprises six metres of silicified
quartzofeldspathic sandstone containing phosphorite
nodules with fish, bird, theropod dinosaur and marine
reptile bones of Cretaceous age (Stilwell et al. 2006).
However, well-preserved dinoflagellate microfossils in the
sedimentary matrix show Takatika Grit is of Paleocene age
(Wilson et al. 2005). The conformably overlying Tutuiri
Greensand (maximum thickness 25 m) is a glauconite-rich
sandstone in the lower part, grading upwards into bryozoan
limestone. Tioriori Group sediments were deposited in an
ocean shelf environment (Campbell et al. 1993).
Kekerione Group comprises (from oldest to youngest) Red
Bluff Tuff, Te Whanga Limestone and Northern Volcanics,
along with several other limestone lithofacies and members
of limited extent which are not differentiated. All units are
described in detail by Campbell et al. (1993).
Red Bluff Tuff (Pk) is a calcareous, fossiliferous, marine
palagonitic tuff of basaltic composition, with some limestone
lenses. All known lower contacts are unconformable over
Pitt Island Group. Red Bluff Tuff is generally well-bedded,
possibly emplaced as mounds from many small eruptive
centres over a wide area. At least 100 m of Red Bluff Tuff
is exposed south of Lake Huro on Chatham Island, and
34
more than 50 m at Waihere Bay on Pitt Island. The age is
Late Paleocene to Early Eocene.
Te Whanga Limestone (Ek) is a coarse-grained bryozoan
limestone (Fig. 37; Campbell et al. 1993). It is soft, pale
and poorly bedded to massive, but has undergone varying
degrees of lithification with development of a sparry
texture. Fossils occur at many localities, and the shark teeth
eroded from Te Whanga Limestone at Blind Jims Creek are
perhaps the best known of all Chatham Island fossils (Fig.
38). The age of the formation is Early Eocene to Early
Oligocene, and depositional environments ranged from
warm, relatively shallow water to mid-outer shelf settings.
The lower part of Te Whanga Limestone is interbedded
with Red Bluff Tuff.
The Northern Volcanics (EOk) (Campbell et al. 1993)
originally included rocks now known to belong to Mairangi
Group. The unit is now restricted to shore platform outcrops
at Taupeka Point, the coast at Wharekauri, and to part of
Mt Chudleigh (H.J. Campbell, pers. comm. 2008). The
formation is non-marine and comprises basalt (limburgite)
lava flows and poorly bedded to massive volcanic breccia.
The basal contact at Taupeka Point is unconformable over
a planed surface of Chatham Schist (Campbell et al. 1993).
The Northern Volcanics are Middle to Late Eocene near
Wharekauri (3541 Ma, K-Ar dating of Grindley et al.
1977, recalculated using new decay constants) and Early
Oligocene at Mt Chudleigh (2737 Ma, Ar-Ar dating of
Panter et al. 2006).
Pliocene volcanic and related sedimentary rocks
Mairangi Group (^m) consists of volcanic and
volcaniclastic rocks and minor limestone on Chatham, Pitt,
and several smaller islands. Though limited in thickness
and extent, ten formations were described by Campbell et
al. (1993) and these have been further extended by recent
field work, particularly in the north and south of Chatham
Island. None can be differentiated at this map scale.
Figure 37 Cliffs of Te Whanga
Limestone (Kekerione Group)
at Big Bush. Nearby the
limestone is less cemented
and has been quarried for
agricultural lime.
Photo: I.M. Turnbull.
In northern Chatham Island, the prominent hills previously
mapped as Northern Volcanics (Fig. 16) are now included
in Rangitihi Volcanics, part of the Mairangi Group
(Campbell et al. 1993; H.J. Campbell, pers. comm. 2008).
They are cones of basaltic lava flows, pyroclastics and
minor intrusive rocks, all of limburgitic composition. The
extrusive phases were produced by explosive submarine
volcanism from at least 15 eruptive centres (Morris 1985b;
Panter et al. 2006). At Cape Young and Maunganui, the
deposits consist of interbedded tuff, breccia, pillow lava
and limestone (Fig. 39). Momoe-a-toa Tuff, intercalated
with Rangitihi Volcanics, comprises basaltic volcaniclastic
sandstone and tuff with richly fossiliferous Pliocene
shellbeds (Fig. 40). Rangitihi Volcanics are Early Pliocene
(45 Ma, Ar-Ar dating of Panter et al. 2006), and volcanic
rocks of this age also extend offshore (K. Hoernle, pers.
comm. 2007). The Sisters islets are composed of basaltic Figure 38 Fossil shark teeth from Te Whanga Limestone
flow rocks and breccia attributed to Rangitihi Volcanics at Blind Jims Creek on the northwestern side of Te Whanga
(Campbell et al. 1993). Lagoon. Most of the teeth are from Striatolamia macrota,
but Carcharodon, Notorhyncus and Lamna are also
In southern Chatham Island, an association of basal represented at this locality (Campbell et al. 1993).
conglomerate, palagonitic tuff, shelly pebbly limestone, Photo: I.M. Turnbull.
and basaltic flows and feeder pipes has recently been
recognised (H.J. Campbell, pers. comm. 2007; Figs 36 and
40). This association overlies a planed surface on Southern
Volcanics; Ar-Ar dating shows it is Early Pliocene in age
(K. Hoernle, pers. comm. 2007).

Volcanic and sedimentary rocks on Mangere and Little

Mangere islands, and nearby parts of Pitt Island, are also
included in the Pliocene Mairangi Group. Rangiauria
Breccia represents proximal deposits from several explosive
volcanic vents, some possibly as old as Late Miocene
(Campbell et al. 1993). Vent collapse created a basin into
which were deposited fossiliferous non-marine siltstone
and claystone (Mangere Formation). Richly fossiliferous
Whenuataru Tuff, containing lenses of glauconitic,
bryozoan Onoua Limestone, occurs on northern Pitt and
Mangere islands and is genetically related to Rangiauria
A
Breccia.

Figure 39 Volcanic rocks

of the Mairangi Group.
A: Basaltic pillow lavas
within Rangitihi Volcanics
are well exposed on the
coast at Mairangi, near
the northernmost point
on Chatham Island.
Photo: J.G. Begg.

B: The prominent hill

Maunganui, on north-
western Chatham Island,
consists of layered tuff
and breccia of Rangitihi
Volcanics. Bedding dips
gently to the right (west).
The house was built of
local stone in the late
1860s by the German
missionary J.G. Engst. B
Photo: J.G. Begg.

35
 A B

Figure 40 Sedimentary rocks of the Mairangi Group.

A: The main shellbed of Momoe-a-toa Tuff is a fine example of a shallow-water, oceanic, hard-ground fauna, with abundant
specimens of Sectipecten (Campbell et al. 1993). It is well exposed on a wave-swept shore platform at Mairangi, near
Cape Young. Photo: J.G. Begg.
B: Un-named shelly, sandy conglomerate within Mairangi Group, 2 km east of Cape L'Eveque on the south coast of
Chatham Island. Stratigraphic relationships and a radiometric date of nearby Mairangi Group basalt indicate an age of
about 4.6 Ma (Early Pliocene). Photo: J.G. Begg.

Figure 41 Karewa Group sediments.

A: Interbedded Karewa Group peat and silt rest unconformably on
Southern Volcanics (not visible in the photo) near Boundary Rock on
the southern coast of Chatham Island. This section lies about 180 m
above sea level, and contains the Kawakawa Tephra about a metre
below the surface (Holt 2008). Photo: J.G. Begg.
B: Shellbed of marginal marine, early Nukumaruan Titirangi Sand at
Moutapu Point, on the western side of Te Whanga Lagoon. The upper
surface of the shelly sand is an erosional surface overlain unconformably
by the late Quaternary Wharekauri Sand (Karewa Group) of terrestrial
origin. Photo: J.G. Begg.

36
Mairangi Group rocks offshore from Pitt Island (Fig. 18)
include a single plug of opalised phonolite at The Pyramid
islet, and basaltic volcaniclastic rocks at Southeast Island,
Round Island and the Star Keys. Ages of 2.63.9 Ma have
been determined by K-Ar dating (Grindley et al. 1977;
Watters et al. 1987).
Pliocene to Quaternary sediments
Karewa Group comprises Late Pliocene to Holocene
sediments, mostly of terrestrial origin, that unconformably
overlie all older rocks of the Chatham Islands (Campbell
et al. 1993). Although Karewa Group sediments are only
mapped on northern Chatham and Pitt islands, where they
are thickest, they occur much more widely.
The oldest unit, Titirangi Sand (^w), consists of
quartzofeldspathic sand, with shell beds and basal layers of
subangular schist, basalt, limestone and vein quartz pebbles
(Campbell et al. 1993; Fig. 41). Titirangi Sand occurs on
the western side of Te Whanga Lagoon and near Red Bluff
in Petre Bay (Holt 2008). It is the oldest post-Paleocene
formation in the Chatham Islands that contains significant
terrigenous debris, and signals the beginning of emergence
and erosion of the eastern Chatham Rise. It is Late Pliocene
in age (early Nukumaruan; Campbell et al. 1993).
The remainder of the Karewa Group (Qw) is predominantly
terrestrial, and ranges from mid-Quaternary to Holocene in
age (Holt 2008). Marine deposits are limited to near-shore
shell beds, beach sands, and gravel lags of minor extent
(Holt 2008). Non-marine sediments include silt or sand
mainly derived from re-worked palagonitic tuff; aeolian
dune-bedded quartzose sand with interbedded peat and
paleosols; and stratified blanket peat deposits (Campbell
et al. 1993; Holt 2008; Fig. 41). Radiocarbon ages from
peat include post-glacial and last glaciation ages (Campbell
et al. 1993), back to the limit of radiocarbon dating. It is
impractical to show the complete distribution of the peat
blanket; for example the southern uplands of Chatham
Island, mapped as volcanic rocks of the Pitt Island Group,
are mantled by several metres of peat which is still forming
today.
Two volcanic ash layers, originating from the Taupo Volcanic
Zone in the central North Island, have been identified
within Karewa Group: Rangitawa Tephra (345 ka), and the
Rekohu Ash Shower, correlated with Kawakawa Tephra
(27 ka; Holt 2008).

Table 1 Mapping of Quaternary glacial and interglacial sediments in the Canterbury map area.

AREA Upper Canterbury Canterbury Waipara area Amberley This map

Waimakariri Plains (regional) Motunau coast
catchment (Waimakariri
sector)

REFERENCE Gage 1958, Wilson 1989, Gregg 1964, Wilson 1963 Gregg 1964,
Moar & Gage Brown & Weeber Suggate 1973 Suggate 1965
1973 1992

Post-glacial /
Springston
Post-glacial Christchurch / Holocene - Q1b / Q1d / Q1a
(5 members)
Springston

Poulter St Bernard
NAME OF FORMATION OR MAP UNIT

Burnham Canterbury
- Q2t, Q2a
Blackwater Burnham Gravels

Otarama (part) Windwhistle (part) Windwhistle (part)

Otarama (part) Windwhistle (part) Windwhistle (part) - - Q4t, Q4a

Bromley* un-named Winterholme Q5b

Teviotdale
Woodstock Woodlands Woodlands Q6t, Q6a
Gravels

- - - - Parikawa mQb

Avoca Hororata Hororata - mQt, mQa

*Fine-grained sediments in Joyces Stream, Otarama (Moar & Gage 1973), of presumed OIS 5 age, are not extensive enough to be shown
on this map.

37
 QUATERNARY
Quaternary sediments are widespread in the Canterbury
area, filling valleys and basins, and forming locally thick
accumulations beneath the plains, coast and sea floor. The
Chatham Islands have a widespread cover of Quaternary
deposits, but only the youngest of these (Q1, see below)
are differentiated on the map; the remainder are included in
Karewa Group (Qw, see p. 37).
Quaternary sediments were previously mapped in
formations (for example, Gregg 1964; Suggate 1973; see
Table 1), but on QMAP sheets they are classified by age
and mode of deposition. Ages based on the Marine Oxygen
Isotope Stage (OIS) classification (Martinson et al. 1987)
are prefixed by Q. Episodes of interglacial climate have
odd numbers while glacial phases have even numbers. The
present interglacial (Holocene, Q1) spans the last 11 500
years3 . Most Quaternary sediments in the Canterbury map
area were deposited either during the Holocene or during
glacial events (such as Q2, Q4, Q6), when generally cold
climates resulted in reduced vegetation cover, glacier
advance in the mountains, and widespread river aggradation.
Older interglacial sediments have been uplifted along the
coastal fringe north of Amberley. Sediments whose ages are
poorly constrained are assigned a generalised late, middle,
early or undifferentiated Quaternary age (i.e. lQ, mQ, eQ
or uQ). Measured ages, for example from radiocarbon or
luminescence dating, are rarely available. For the most
part, ages are assigned using relative age indicators such
as landform height and preservation, soil development and
weathering.
Modes of deposition comprise ten main categories: scree
and colluvium (s), landslide (l), rock avalanche (h), till
(t), alluvium (a), loess (e), dune (d), lake (k), beach (b),
and human (anthropogenic; n). Alluvium is further
differentiated by overprints for active floodplain, alluvial
fan, swamp and estuary.
Scree and colluvial deposits
Deposits of scree, consisting of unsorted angular blocky
rock debris, and colluvium, comprising rock debris, sand or
silt, are widespread in upland areas of Canterbury, including
Banks Peninsula. These deposits are up to many tens of
metres thick but only the most extensive are differentiated
on the map (Q1s). Smaller areas of scree or colluvium at
valley margins are included within alluvium units. On the
crests of some inland Canterbury ranges, isolated boulder
field deposits (lQs) comprise angular rock debris, locally
displaying stone stripe and polygon patterns produced by
periglacial (freeze-thaw) action.
3
The Holocene Epoch was originally defined as beginning
10 000 years ago, based on radiocarbon dating. It is now
known that there is mismatch between radiocarbon ages
and calendar years, due to natural variations in radiocarbon
concentrations. The Holocene began approximately
11 500 calendar years ago (Gradstein et al. 2004).
38
Figure 42 Blocky landslide debris in the Waipara (Ohuriawa)
gorge. The chaotic blocks, derived from Mt Brown Formation
limestone (Motunau Group), are many metres across.
Landslide deposits
Landslide deposits (uQl, Q1l) comprise a variety of rock
and soil debris, according to the materials in the source
areas. Landslides are found in many of the downland, hill
and mountain areas and occur on all scales. Only landslides
more than 0.5 km2 in extent are shown on the map. Several
types of landslide occur, including debris flows, shallow
translational slides and rotational slumps, deeper seated
earthflows or slumps, rock block slides (Fig. 42), rockfalls
from cliffs, and rock avalanches from steep mountain slopes.
Where the underlying rock unit can be inferred, displaced
slope material is shown as an overprint. A relict landslide
(Q5l) occurs in association with raised interglacial marine
deposits northeast of the Waipara River. Rock avalanche
deposits (Q1h), resulting from sudden failure of steep
mountain slopes, generally comprise unsorted fragments of
rock in a sandy or silty matrix.
Glacial deposits
Glacial deposits, collectively referred to here as till,
include angular or rounded bouldery gravel, sand, silt and
clay, deposited by or in close association with glacier ice.
The deposits commonly show deformation caused by ice
movement, or internal collapse during glacier melting and
retreat. Bedded sand, silt and clay formed in ice-marginal
lakes are included within the glacial deposit units.
Deposits from at least three glaciations are preserved in
the map area (Fig. 43). The oldest tills (mQt) are typically
yellow-brown with slightly to highly weathered gravel
clasts. Little of the original moraine morphology is
recognisable. They are inferred to be at least as old as OIS
6, and may include remnants of deposits formed during
more than one glaciation. Q6t is locally subdivided from
mQt based on relative position and degree of landform
preservation. Remnants of grey-brown till with slightly
weathered gravel clasts (Q4t) are correlated with OIS 4
 N

0 10 20

Kilometres

Figure 43 Approximate limits of ice advances and Ice limits

interglacial coastlines in the Christchurch area. Late LGM ~20,000 - 17,000 y BP
These are derived from geological mapping and
Early or mid LGM ~ 27,000 to 20,000 y BP
geomorphological interpretation, relative to the present
Early Otira Glaciation (Q4)
topography and coastline.
Middle Quaternary Glaciations -
The lightly shaded area shows the estimated extent Waimea Glaciation (Q6) and older
of the ice during the Last Glacial Maximum. Ice limits Interglacial coastline
of earlier glaciations in the upper Waimakariri are not Q1
well defined by deposits, but it is unlikely that Q4 ice
Q5
extended through the Otarama Gorge.
Q7
Interglacial shoreline positions in the coastal hills lie Q9
at the inland margin of raised marine terraces and mQ
related erosion features. Subsurface positions of the Present lakes & sea
shorelines in the Pegasus to Ellesmere area are based
LGM ice (transparent)
on drillhole information (Brown & Wilson 1988).

39
 Figure 44 Rocky till forming
hummocky moraines in a valley
beneath Back Peak, high in the
Torlesse Range. The till is probably
of late Q2 age, and has been
remobilised by freeze/thaw action
to produce the wrinkled surface
characteristic of rock glaciers.
Steep slopes in the background are
mantled by scree.

in the upper Waimakariri basin. Brownish-grey and grey River deposits

tills (Q2t) forming well-defined moraine loops and ridges
are assigned to OIS 2 based on the lack of weathering and
landform preservation (Gage 1958; Suggate 1965, 1990).
Q2t is separated into brownish-grey tills formed during the
early to middle parts of OIS 2 (red overprint), and grey tills
of the late Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent retreat
(black overprint; Fig. 44).
Alluvial deposits comprising gravel, sand and silt have
been laid down by rivers and streams. They range from
veneers of sediment up to several metres thick, masking
older geological units, to major aggradational deposits
many tens of metres thick. Compactness of the deposits
generally increases with age.

A B

Figure 45 River deposits.

A: Road-cut exposure of deposits beneath a degradational
terrace surface of the Waipara River. River gravel with a
brown-weathered matrix (Q2a) is overlain by a veneer
of grey Q1a river gravel and capped by a thin mantle of
Holocene loess. The weathered gravel clasts are derived
from Kowai Formation.
B: Typical Q2a river alluvium of the Canterbury Plains near
the Selwyn River. The grey unweathered gravel has a
compact matrix of yellow-brown stained silt and sand, and
is probably distal outwash from the upper Selwyn lobe of
the Rakaia glacier. Thin loess caps the gravel.

40
River alluvium typically consists of moderately- to well-
sorted, sandy, rounded gravel. Close to coeval glacial
deposits, alluvium includes poorly sorted, bouldery, sandy
and silty outwash gravel. Dissected river terraces containing
grey-brown to yellow-brown, slightly to highly weathered
sandy gravel (eQa, mQa) are distinguished by relative
differences in height. These gravels have poorly preserved
depositional surfaces and are inferred to be at least as old as
OIS 6. They may include unrelated remnants of alluvium
deposited during different glacial episodes. Grey-brown,
slightly to moderately weathered river alluvium (Q6a,
Q4a) is preserved in scattered terrace remnants near the
margins of the valleys and plains, and also at depth beneath
younger deposits in the plains. Grey to grey-brown river
gravel, sand and silt of undifferentiated late Quaternary age
(lQa) is mapped where the deposit is considered to span a
range of ages younger than OIS 6. Largely unweathered,
grey or brown-grey alluvium with generally well-preserved
surface channel patterns (Q2a) underlies large areas of
the Canterbury Plains (Fig. 45). River valleys cut below
the general level of the plains commonly have flights of
degradational terraces stepping down to the river. The
highest degradation terraces, included within Q2a on the
map, are typically underlain by a veneer of late OIS 2
alluvium, resting unconformably on earlier OIS 2 alluvium.
Lower degradation terraces and modern river floodplains
are underlain by grey unweathered alluvium (Q1a; Fig. 45),
which is most extensive in eastern parts of the Canterbury
Plains where aggradation of river alluvium has continued
during OIS 1.
Alluvial fan deposits
Fan-shaped wedges of alluvial sediment are formed where
streams emerge from hill terrain onto low-gradient valley
floors or plains. Fan alluvium is typically moderately to
Figure 46 Loess on the Banks Peninsula foothills, near the junction of Christchurch-Akaroa Road and Birdlings Road.
This quarried outcrop has multi-layered loess and loess-colluvium about 16 m thick. The draping of former land surfaces
can be clearly seen. Vertical fretting of the face is related to the process that forms tunnel gullies in nearby slopes.
poorly sorted, silty, sub-angular gravel and sand. Brown,
weathered fan alluvium in dissected terraces (mQa) is
probably at least as old as OIS 6 and includes remnants
of alluvium deposited during different glacial, and perhaps
interglacial, episodes. Grey to brown fan alluvium of
undifferentiated late Quaternary age underlies composite
fans that are still partially active (lQa), as well as incised
or abandoned fans deposited during the Last Glacial
Maximum (Q2a) and active or recently active fans (Q1a).
Alluvial fan deposits too small to show on this map are
included within adjacent river alluvium.
Loess
Windblown yellow-brown silt deposits, locally with fine
sand or clay, are widespread on terraces, slopes and ridges
at the margins of the Canterbury Plains, on Banks Peninsula
and on the coastal hills north of Waipara River (Ives 1973;
Berger et al. 2001; Schmidt et al. 2005). Loess is commonly
up to several metres thick and generally overlies Quaternary
sediments older than OIS 2 as well as pre-Quaternary
rocks. It is most extensive on middle to late Quaternary
terraces but elsewhere has a more patchy distribution due
to episodic removal by localised wind or water erosion.
For several kilometres southwest of entrenched rivers such
as the Rakaia and Waimakariri, alluvium of the Canterbury
Plains is blanketed by Holocene (OIS 1) loess up to 2 m
thick, locally reaching 4 m at Barrhill (Ives 1973; Berger
et al. 1996). Dust storms generated from floodplains
during northwesterly gales continue to add to these loess
deposits. Holocene loess also occurs in parts of the upper
Waimakariri basin.
For clarity, loess is not shown on this map, except on Banks
Peninsula where loess thicker than about 3 m is mapped
(mQe; Figs 14 and 46). These loess deposits commonly
Photo: I.M. Turnbull.
41
 Figure 47 Dune deposits.
A A: Dunes of windblown river sand are an
obvious landscape feature on several parts
of the Canterbury Plains. Sandy Knolls
near West Melton, south of the Waimakariri
River, are post-glacial (OIS 1) in age.
Photo CN23390/8: D.L. Homer.
B: Mobile Holocene dunes separate
brackish Lake Pateriki (right) from the Pacific
Ocean on northeastern Chatham Island.
Photo: I.M. Turnbull.

Figure 48 Beach deposits of Glacial Lake

Speight occur on a flight of wave-eroded
benches cut into a large alluvial fan near Mt
Binser, in the upper Waimakariri basin. They
date from the latest part of the last glaciation.
Photo: D.B. Townsend.

42
contain multiple layers, with softer massive loess alternating
with harder, jointed loess (fragipans; for example, Griffiths
1973). Interbedded layers of colluvium or fan alluvium
are common where loess lies on or adjacent to moderate
slopes, along with downslope thickening of loess due to
colluvial reworking of primary (airfall) material. Griffiths
(1973, 1974) distinguished between calcareous Birdlings
Flat loess on the outer flanks of Banks Peninsula and non-
calcareous Barrys Bay loess, containing more colluvial
material, on slopes of the valleys and harbours. The ages of
loess sequences have proved difficult to measure accurately
(Berger et al. 2001; Almond et al. 2007).
Dune sand
Dunes of windblown river sand occur locally on the
Canterbury Plains. Yellow-brown, weathered sand (mQd)
overlies middle Quaternary alluvium near Glenroy, while
slightly weathered sand dunes (Q2d) and unweathered
dunes (Q1d) occur on terraces near the Rakaia and
Waimakariri rivers (Fig. 47). Dunes are actively forming
beside the modern floodplains.
Dunes of beach sand (Q1d) occur on Kaitorete Spit and
form extensive dune fields along the coastal fringe from
Sumner to the Waipara River, and also around the central
and northern coasts of Chatham Island (Fig. 47), where
four episodes of Holocene dune-building are recognised
(McFadgen 1994). While many dunes are relatively
stable, seaward parts of some coastal dunes are actively
accumulating (red overprint on Q1d).
Figure 49 Marine terrace (Q5b) deposits northeast of
Motunau Beach. Well-rounded, well-sorted greywacke
beach gravel has been offset and buckled by a minor fault.
Swamp, lake and coastal deposits
Poorly consolidated peat, silt and sand (overprint on Q1a)
are associated with swamps (some of which are now
drained) on floodplains, in dune fields and near lake and
coastal margins. Swamp deposits more than about 0.5 km2
in extent are shown on the map, except where incorporated
into adjacent lake or estuarine deposits.
In the upper Waimakariri valley, wave-cut benches with
veneers of lake-beach gravel and sand (Q2k) formed at
the margin of Glacial Lake Speight (Gage 1958), which
filled during glacier retreat and was subsequently drained
in late OIS 2 (Fig. 48). Late Holocene lacustrine sand, silt
and peat (Q1k) are mapped around parts of lakes Ellesmere
and Forsyth, along with estuarine or marine silt and sand
(Q1a) at the head of Lyttelton Harbour, around the Avon-
Heathcote Estuary, and in Te Whanga Lagoon on Chatham
Island.
Uplifted coastal deposits formed during previous
interglacials (Fig. 43) rest on wave-cut platforms north of
the Waipara River in northern Canterbury. The sediments
include beach or shallow marine gravels or sands (Fig.
49), shellbeds, estuarine sand and mud, alluvial fan gravel,
sand and silt, dune sand and loess (Jobberns 1926, 1928;
Suggate 1965; Carr 1970). The most prominent uplifted
terrace is underlain by slightly weathered gravel and sand
(Q5b) and has a well-defined inland margin that marks a
former shoreline. The inland margin is about 45 m above
sea level near the Waipara River and increases to as much
as 120 m near Motunau, reflecting greater uplift towards the
northeast. At Motunau, the terrace also has a pronounced
seaward tectonic tilt, with height of the terrace decreasing
to as little as 30 m at the present coast (Fig. 7). Several
more flat benches of presumed marine origin, up to at least
300 m altitude, are present on the coastal margin of the
northern Canterbury hills (Carr 1970; Yousif 1987; Barrell
1989), but the map shows only those with weathered beach
gravel and sand (mQb).
Late Holocene beach gravel and sand ridges (Q1b) are
most extensive at Kaitorete Spit (Soons et al. 1997; Fig. 11)
but are also mapped around Lake Ellesmere (Hemmingsen
1997) and at the heads of some bays on Banks Peninsula
(Stephenson & Shulmeister 1999). Active gravel and sand
beaches (colour overprint on Q1b) are wide enough to
depict on the map in parts of Canterbury Bight, Pegasus
Bay and in Hanson Bay on Chatham Island.
Deposits of human origin
Anthropic deposits (Q1n) are widespread in urban areas
and along transport corridors, but only locally are they
extensive enough to show on the map. These include
material placed for engineering works such as reclamations
at Port of Lyttelton and Ferrymead, embankments
impounding oxidation ponds at Christchurch, and the Lake
Hood recreational reservoir near Ashburton. Also shown
are the main McLeans Island flood stopbank and the Eyre
River and Halswell River diversion canals, along with
43
waste landfills at Parklands near Christchurch and at Kate Permian-Triassic and Triassic Torlesse rocks (cross section
Valley southeast of Waipara. C-C) are inferred to be faults.

SUBSURFACE AND OFFSHORE GEOLOGY
Information on subsurface geology on land and offshore
comes directly from petroleum exploration drillholes (J.D.
George-1, Chertsey-1, Leeston-1, Resolution-1, Arcadia-1
and Kowai-1), stratigraphic drillholes and water wells.
Based on new seismic reflection surveys and exploration
wells undertaken by Indo-Pacific Energy, J.D. George-1
stratigraphy has been reinterpreted (Jongens 2008).
Indirect information is obtained from geophysical surveys,
particularly seismic reflection and gravity, and further
constraint comes from surface rock exposures. The current
interpretation of subsurface geology across the Christchurch
map area is shown in the cross sections.
The subsurface interpretations in the Canterbury ranges and
basins, and near Banks Peninsula, are based on extrapolation
of surface geology. Concealed faults and folds mapped on
the Canterbury Plains are based on seismic reflection surveys
for Indo-Pacific Energy (Schlumberger Geco Prakla 1998,
1999, 2000) and Dorn et al. (2008), and reprocessed seismic
data of Kirkaldy et al. (1963). Combined with exploration
drillholes (for example, Indo-Pacific Energy 2000), the
surveys have also been used to interpret the Cretaceous to
Quaternary sequence beneath the Canterbury Plains (cross-
sections B-B and C-C). Subsurface boundaries between
Below the present coast, Quaternary alluvial deposits
interfinger with estuarine and shallow marine deposits
(Suggate 1958; Brown & Wilson 1988; Wilson 1989;
Fig. 50). Sedimentation was influenced by glacial/
interglacial fluctuations in climate and sea level, and non-
marine peat and shallow marine shell deposits well below
glacial minimum sea levels indicate long-term subsidence
(Wellman 1979; Gibb 1986; Brown & Wilson 1988).
Concealed active faults and folds in the Pegasus Bay area
are interpreted from seismic surveys (Barnes 1993, 1995,
1996). In offshore Canterbury and the Chatham Islands,
the thicknesses of the mid-Cretaceous to Quaternary
sequence and locations of subsurface bodies of volcanic
rock are based on geophysical survey data (Field, Browne
et al. 1989; Wood et al. 1989).
Sediments forming the modern sea bed are predominantly
sand or mud. There are patches of gravelly or shelly
sediment, particularly southeast of the coast between the
Ashburton and Rakaia rivers, east of Banks Peninsula and
offshore from the coastal hills (Herzer 1979, 1981a, 1981b;
Carter & Herzer 1986). Currents and swells transport
sand and mud along the sea bed, mainly in a northeasterly
direction (Carter & Herzer 1979), except for a zone of
southward longshore drift in the southern half of Pegasus
Bay (Herzer 1981a).

NW SE

120
Sp
rin
80 Bu gston Canterbury Plains Canterbury Bight
rnh Fm
Wo a m / W .
ind
Metres above/below sealevel

od
40 lan wh
ds istl
Ho F m. eF
ror m.
ata Present Day Sea Level
0 Fm 2/4
. Ricca Christc
rton G hurch Continental Shelf
Fm.
6 ravel Pegasus Bay Fm
-40 .
Linwo Bromle Canterbury
od Gr y Fm. Bight Fm. (Upper) Shelf
8 a vel
-80 Canterbury Edge
Burw Bight Fm. (Lower)
ood G
10 r avel Heathcote Fm
-120 .
Wa i n
Unna o ni Gr
med avel Shirley Fm.
-160 grav
el

-200 Unnamed interglacial

-240
Fluvial gravel

Sand, silt, clay and peat

0 10 20
6 Oxygen Isotope Stage
Kilometres

Figure 50 Diagrammatic cross section through Quaternary deposits underlying Christchurch.

After Brown & Weeber (1992) and Browne & Naish (2003).

44
TECTONIC HISTORY
Permian to Early Cretaceous
The Torlesse composite terrane is the easternmost of
the Late Paleozoic and Mesozoic terranes that accreted
along the active proto-Pacific convergent margin of
Gondwanaland (Bradshaw et al. 1981). The Permian to
Late Triassic quartzofeldspathic sediments of the Rakaia
terrane accumulated along this margin in a subduction zone
setting, and were progressively imbricated and deformed
in an accretionary wedge. Sediments were derived from
erosion of Gondwanan rocks, mainly felsic igneous and
sedimentary rocks (MacKinnon 1983; Wandres et al.
2004b). The most likely source areas were geological
provinces now lying in northeast Australia (Adams & Kelley
1998; Pickard et al. 2000; Adams & Maas 2004) or in Marie
Byrd Land, Antarctica (MacKinnon 1983; Wandres et al.
2004b). During accretion, the sediments now comprising
the Rakaia terrane in the Christchurch map area were
subjected to prehnite-pumpellyite facies metamorphism.
Metamorphism and an early deformation phase are thought
to have culminated in the latest Triassic-Early Jurassic
(Bradshaw et al. 1981; Adams 2003). Wakaepa Formation
was deposited during the Middle Jurassic in a non-marine
setting, and was derived from previously formed Rakaia
terrane rocks. This implies that lithification, and localised
uplift and erosion, had taken place by this time. Chatham
Schist was metamorphosed to pumpellyite-actinolite facies
(Adams & Robinson 1977; Josephson 1985), probably
during the Early Jurassic (Adams et al. 2008).
By the Late Jurassic, the Gondwanaland convergent
margin had re-established itself on the proto-Pacific side
of the Rakaia terrane. Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous
quartzofeldspathic sediments of the Pahau terrane
accumulated along this subducting margin and were
deformed in an accretionary wedge. Much of the sediment
was sourced from uplifted Rakaia terrane and felsic
volcanics of the Median Batholith (MacKinnon 1983;
Wandres et al. 2004a, 2005). Deformation and zeolite facies
metamorphism of the Pahau terrane culminated in the Early
Cretaceous (Bradshaw et al. 1981; Bradshaw 1989), and the
Rakaia and Pahau terranes probably amalgamated at this
time. The Esk Head belt, comprising mlange and other
sheared rocks, is interpreted as a tectonic suture between
the Rakaia and Pahau terranes (Bradshaw et al. 1981;
Begg & Johnston 2000). Exotic blocks within the mlange
may represent relics of seamounts or ocean floor which
ploughed into the lower slope of the Pahau accretionary
wedge (Silberling et al. 1988). The blocks were mixed
with mudstone-rich lithologies and incorporated into the
Esk Head belt by shearing and/or diapirism (Bradshaw
1989). The same convergent tectonism was possibly
responsible for refolding of earlier structures in the Rakaia
terrane (Bradshaw 1989), and folding and zeolite facies
metamorphism of the Wakaepa Formation. Convergent
margin subduction and terrane accretion ended in the late
Early Cretaceous (Bradshaw 1989), possibly as a result of
collision between the Hikurangi Plateau and the margin of
Gondwanaland at what is now the Chatham Rise (Davy
1992; Davy et al. 2008).
Mid-Cretaceous to Paleogene
An extensional tectonic setting replaced the previous
convergence at the Gondwanaland margin. Widespread
erosion of Torlesse rocks took place, with deposition of
sediments in mid-Cretaceous basins in Canterbury, along
the Chatham Rise and on the Chatham Islands (Field,
Browne et al. 1989; Wood et al. 1989; Campbell et al.
1993). Andesitic to rhyolitic volcanism at this time (Mount
Somers Volcanics Group) was associated with normal
faulting, and may also have been related to the entry of
Hikurangi Plateau oceanic crust into the subduction zone
(Tappenden 2003; Davy et al. 2008).
The New Zealand continental block began to separate from
Australia with the opening of the Tasman Sea in the middle
Late Cretaceous (c. 85 Ma; Mortimer 2004). Tectonic
activity slowed through the Paleocene, and Tasman Sea
spreading ended in the Early Eocene, although spreading
continued between Antarctica and proto-New Zealand.
The Canterbury part of the map area was emergent land
in the Late Cretaceous, but slow regional subsidence in
a passive margin setting led to widespread sedimentation
(Eyre Group). Localised intraplate basaltic volcanism
occurred during the Early Eocene (View Hill Volcanics),
Middle Eocene (Esk Formation volcanics) and Early
Oligocene (Thomas Formation). The Chatham Islands
also underwent regional subsidence in the Late Cretaceous,
leading to marine transgression across sediment-filled mid-
Cretaceous extensional basins (Waihere Bay Group) and
a major stratovolcano (represented by Pitt Island Group).
Paleogene marine sediments and volcanic deposits (Tioriori
and Kekerione groups) were partly eroded during a Late
Oligocene period of non-deposition that may have been
caused by tectonic activity, changes in sea level and/or
changes in oceanic circulation (Wood & Herzer 1993).
Miocene and Pliocene
Major changes in tectonics were occurring by the earliest
Miocene, with the development of the Australian-Pacific
plate boundary through New Zealand (Walcott 1978;
Sutherland et al. 2000). The Alpine Fault and Marlborough
Fault System propagated through the South Island, while
north of the Chatham Rise, Pacific Plate oceanic crust
began to be subducted westward (Nicol et al. 2007).
Uplift and erosion close to the Alpine Fault provided
an increasing input of sediment to the shallow seas of
Canterbury, resulting in the deposition of the Motunau
Group (Browne & Field 1985; Carter 1988). Intraplate
volcanism, primarily basaltic, occurred during the Middle to
Late Miocene (Weaver & Smith 1989). The large complex
stratovolcanoes of Lyttelton and Akaroa were constructed
at Banks Peninsula, and basaltic deposits were erupted in
a predominantly non-marine environment in the Hororata-
Oxford area (Burnt Hill Group).
By the Pliocene, continuing uplift and erosion in the
west was producing large volumes of greywacke-derived
sediment that accumulated in a proto-Canterbury Plains
45
environment. These plains once extended across the
Waipara area, as revealed by the hundreds of metres of
Kowai Formation gravel preserved on the flanks of thrust-
cored anticlines such as the Doctors Range. Outer shelf
sedimentation continued in the Motunau area (Greta
Formation), where tectonic activity may have played a
role in the formation and filling of submarine canyons, in
association with synsedimentary slumping and submarine
debris-flows (Herzer & Lewis 1979). At the eastern end
of the Chatham Rise, an uplift event in latest Pliocene time
caused the emergence of land for the first time since the
Late Cretaceous, and probably resulted in the erosion of
large parts of the Paleogene and Neogene record by sea-
level fluctuations.
Quaternary
The zone of deformation across the plate boundary
widened during the Quaternary, resulting in a suite of
north- to northeast-striking reverse faults and associated
folds. These produced the range and basin topography of
northern and inland central Canterbury. Sinuous anticlinal
and synclinal folds characterise the Waipara area, while
southwest of Amberley, a series of reverse faults and
folds, and at least one strike-slip fault (Porters Pass Fault)
comprise the Porters Pass to Amberley Fault Zone (Cowan
et al. 1996; Howard et al. 2005). Uplift of the western side
of the fault zone produced the Canterbury range front, a
prominent westward transition from plains to ranges.
Late Quaternary uplift rates of up to 2 mm/yr are estimated
at the axis of the Cass Anticline near Waipara (Nicol et al.
1994, 1995; Pettinga et al. 2001; Campbell et al. 2003). It
is unclear whether all the large-scale faults/folds are still
active and have caused, for example, the uplift of coastal
marine terraces, or whether such uplift reflects newly
evolved active structures. However, known locations
of faults and estimated rates of slip do not fully account
for deformation recorded by Global Positioning System
measurements (Wallace et al. 2007). It is possible that there
are additional active faults, or that the known faults and
46
folds have greater rates of deformation than are currently
estimated.
Off the northern Canterbury coast, rates and amplitudes of
deformation diminish rapidly towards the southeast (Barnes
1995). Near the coast, inferred slip rates of subsurface faults
are up to 0.9 mm/yr, whereas 20 km farther offshore, fault
slip rates have diminished to < 0.1 mm/yr (Barnes 1996).
Slow rates of tectonic activity are consistent with onland
observations: no deformation of Holocene landforms,
slight deformation of Last Glacial Maximum landforms,
and progressively greater deformation of older landforms.
Continuing subsidence of the eastern part of the Canterbury
Plains and adjacent shelf from mid-Pegasus Bay
southwards, together with the high rates of sedimentation,
are shown by intercalated glacial and interglacial sediments
beneath Christchurch, Lake Ellesmere and the Canterbury
Bight (Fig. 50). Estimated subsidence rates of between
0.1 and 0.3 mm/yr (for example, Herzer 1981a; Brown &
Weeber 1994) are in apparent conflict with remnants of
loess-covered erosion surfaces close to present sea level
on the flanks of Banks Peninsula, which are interpreted as
wave-eroded features attesting to tectonic stability in the
late Quaternary (Armon 1974; Lawrie 1993; Bal 1997).
Quaternary deposits beneath Gebbies Valley have been
interpreted as reflecting tectonic stability (Shulmeister et
al. 1999), whereas shelly sediments between 40 and 55 m
below sea level under the Port of Lyttelton suggest tectonic
subsidence of the Lyttelton area (Barrell 2001). One
possible explanation is that Quaternary sediment loading
may have caused subsidence in areas where the sediments
are thickest.
On Chatham Island, uplift rates of 0.040.08 mm/yr have
been inferred from wave-cut surfaces and their cover
beds, although there is considerable variation across the
island (Holt 2008). These rates are very low compared
with mainland New Zealand, and are consistent with
the remoteness of the Chatham Islands from the plate
boundary.
ENGINEERING GEOLOGY
This section provides generalised information on the
engineering properties of rock types in the Christchurch map
area. It is not detailed enough for site-specific geotechnical
investigations or geological hazard assessments.
Paleozoic to Early Cretaceous rocks
In the Torlesse composite terrane, physical properties of
the unfoliated rocks (t.z. I) vary depending on composition,
structural character and weathering. Unweathered, poorly
bedded sandstone is generally strong and hard, while well-
bedded sandstone/mudstone, massive mudstone, mlange
and broken formation rocks are weaker and commonly
more fractured. Rock strength is reduced with increased
weathering, or where there are closely spaced rock-mass
defects such as joints, bedding surfaces or crush zones.
Steep natural or cut slopes in fresh rock with few joints
generally stand well, although rockfall is a potential hazard
in steep terrain. Slightly to moderately foliated Torlesse
rocks on the Chatham Islands (t.z. II and higher) are
more prone to failure parallel to planes of schistosity or
foliation.
Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic sedimentary rocks
These rocks have a wide range of geotechnical properties
because of the variety of composition and grain size.
Limestone is generally hard and stands well in bluffs
and steep slopes, but is susceptible to joint-controlled
block falls. Sandstone and mudstone, though generally
consolidated, are soft rocks in the engineering sense.
Where unweathered they may stand well in moderately
sloping natural or cut faces, but are prone to fretting. They
become more susceptible to landsliding where weathered,
particularly where bedding dips at a moderate angle.
Mudstone rich in smectitic swelling clay, commonly known
as bentonite, is particularly prone to instability.
Figure 51 Loess deposits on the Port Hills near Christchurch have caused problems in some subdivisions, as even minor
earthworks may expose erodible material. For example, severe rilling and tunnel gully erosion of loess have occurred at
Westmorland since the 1970s. Unless controlled, stormwater runoff can initiate rilling (left) and gully erosion (right) by
wetting and drying the soil.
Cretaceous and Cenozoic volcanic rocks
Volcanic rocks formed as lava flows or domes are
generally hard and stand well in bluffs and steep slopes,
but are susceptible to joint-controlled block falls. Bedded
volcaniclastic rocks including tuff, breccia and sandstone
may have planes of weakness parallel to bedding, although
they generally stand well in moderate to steep natural or
cut slopes. Weathering reduces the strength and stability
of volcanic rocks.
Quaternary sediments
Quaternary sediments are poorly consolidated and are
classified in engineering geology as soils. Their geotechnical
properties depend on factors such as composition, degree
of consolidation, water saturation and grain size, and may
be difficult to predict on a local (<1 km) scale. Scree,
colluvium and landslide deposits are internally variable in
composition and strength, but are generally weak materials.
Early to mid-Quaternary gravels are generally bound in
a silt or clay matrix, with low to moderate permeability,
and stand well in moderate to steep cut slopes. Q6 to
Q2 tills are generally compact and of low permeability,
especially where lake beds occur within till. Q6 to Q4
alluvial gravels, and Q2 outwash gravels close to moraines,
are generally compact, particularly where silt dominates
the matrix. Other Q2 alluvial gravels and Q1 gravels are
generally poorly consolidated to loose. Thick deposits of
Q1 sand, silt or peat provide a less satisfactory foundation
material than do gravelly sediments. Alluvial fan deposits
are generally siltier and more compact than river gravels
of equivalent age. Loess is generally compact but is very
susceptible to rilling and tunnel gully erosion (Fig. 51).
When dry it may stand well in steep faces, but tends to be
unstable in moderate to steep slopes when saturated.
Photos CN25104/35 (left) and CN25241/24: D.L. Homer.
47
GEOLOGICAL RESOURCES
Aggregate is economically the most important geological
resource of the map area, and supplies are practically
inexhaustible. Limestone, coal, sand and clay (including
bentonite) have been mined extensively in the past and
some quarries are still worked on a small scale. There are
no significant resources of metallic minerals. The valuable
groundwater resource beneath the Canterbury Plains is
extensive but demand is high and increasing. Onshore
Canterbury has low potential for significant reserves
of hydrocarbons, but the offshore area may be more
prospective. Phosphorite nodules on the Chatham Rise
have some potential for mining.
Aggregate
Supplies of aggregate in Canterbury are obtained
predominantly from greywacke gravel alluvium of the
Canterbury Plains. About half of the gravel is extracted
from active river beds, mainly the lower Waimakariri and
Ashley rivers, and half from out-of-channel quarries
(Environment Canterbury 2006). Aggregate demand for
roading, construction, and major urban and agricultural
Figure 52 Revegetated gravel pits near Harewood, west of Christchurch. The unmodified surface (left foreground) shows
channel patterns from the former braidplain of the Waimakariri River. Christchurch International Airport is in the distance.
48
developments is expected to increase, particularly in the
greater Christchurch area. Canterbury Plains gravel is
generally free of reactive minerals and is ideal for use as
road metal and in concrete production. Zeolites occur in
gravel derived from some catchments, such as the Ashley
(Fig. 23).
The Pound Road quarry west of Christchurch is one of the
largest alluvial gravel pits in the country, producing about
40 different aggregate and sand products (Christie et al.
2001b), and many other sites on the Canterbury Plains are
worked as required. Several of the parks in the Christchurch
urban area occupy former gravel pits (Brown & Weeber
1992) and elsewhere on the plains gravel pits have been
successfully rehabilitated (Fig. 52). Aggregate has also
been quarried from outcrops of greywacke (for example,
near Teddington; Fig. 53) and volcanic rocks (such as the
Halswell quarry; Fig. 34).
In the Chatham Islands, basalt, schist and semischist have
been used in road construction, although the accessible
resources are distant from the main settlements.
Photo CN24155/12: D.L. Homer.

Figure 53 Brown, weathered Rakaia terrane greywacke
is quarried for aggregate near Teddington at the head of
Lyttelton Harbour. The photo shows distorted bedding in
sandstone and chert, and a surface layer of loess colluvium.
Photo CN20886/20: D.L. Homer.
Rip-rap
Rip-rap (armour stone), to protect the coast or river
banks from erosion, requires large blocks of hard
unfractured rock, generally more than 1 m in diameter.
Limestone, volcanic rock and conglomerate within the Late
Cretaceous-Cenozoic sequence are potentially suitable for
rip-rap. Harper Hills Basalt from a quarry on the west
side of Chalk Hill near Oxford is currently used for this
purpose. Lyttelton Volcanic Group rocks have been used
for harbour reclamation/protection and mole construction
near Lyttelton. Large blocks of hard crystalline limestone
from the Kekerione Group have been used for wharf and
other construction work in the Chatham Islands.
Limestone
Limestone is quarried for production of agricultural lime,
mainly from Amuri Limestone along the Canterbury range
front. It typically contains between 70 and 84% CaCO3
(Wright et al. 1989) but in places up to 95% CaCO3 (Christie
et al. 2001a). The main quarry at present is the White Rock
Lime Quarry near Loburn although significant amounts of
limestone have also been produced from quarries at Chalk
Hill near Oxford, and near Motunau Beach.
Easily worked, high-grade limestone (87-99% CaCO3)
is quarried for agricultural purposes on both Chatham
and Pitt islands, particularly from Te Whanga Limestone
(Kekerione Group) at Big Bush on Chatham (Fig. 37) and
Onoua Limestone (Mairangi Group) on Pitt (Campbell et
al. 1993). These limestones also have moderate phosphate
content (Hay et al. 1970).
Bentonite
Bentonite is a soft claystone rich in smectite clays, including
montmorillonite, that have swelling properties. Within
the Burnt Hill Group, Coalgate Bentonite is a freshwater
deposit derived from weathered basaltic ash that locally
overlies the Harper Hills Basalt (Carlson & Rodgers 1974).
It has been mined by opencast methods in the Harper Hills
near Hororata since 1968, mainly for use as a drilling mud.
There are substantial reserves (Wood et al. 1989; Wright
et al. 1989). Within Ashley Mudstone (Eyre Group),
sodium-rich bentonites derived from submarine alteration
of basaltic ash occur in sub-economic grades and quantities
in the Waipara and Motunau areas (Wright et al. 1989), but
deposits are commonly disrupted by landsliding.
Clay
Significant deposits of clay occur in the Malvern Hills,
particularly within the Broken River Formation (Speight
1928). A local pottery industry, established by 1872 in
the Whitecliffs-Glentunnel area, manufactured bricks,
glazed pottery, roofing tiles, chimney pots, fire bricks and
ornamental bricks. The Glentunnel potteries closed in 1983
but production continues on a smaller scale for brickmaking.
Most of the usable clays occur directly below coal seams,
and contain many impurities such as organic matter, fine
sand, mica and iron oxide (Christie et al. 2000).
Loess on the Port Hills and Banks Peninsula has been
quarried extensively for brick, tile and pipe manufacture
(Fig. 46), and at least 16 brickmaking plants have operated
around Christchurch (Brown & Weeber 1992). Loess has
also been used as a stabilising additive for roading purposes
(Sewell et al. 1988).
Sand
Sand resources are widespread in the map area. They
include quartz sandstones within the Eyre Group and late
Quaternary dune sands. Quartz sand suitable for foundry
use occurs within the lower part of the Eyre Group at
several localities, and has been worked at Whitecliffs and
Omihi. Holocene dune sand provides an abundant resource
for sandblasting and has been quarried near Birdlings Flat
(Wright et al. 1989). Pits excavated in former Waimakariri
River channels also provide Holocene sand for construction
(Brown & Weeber 1992).
Building stone
A comprehensive account of building stone quarried around
Christchurch is given by Hayward (1987). Volcanic rock
from Banks Peninsula provided the most popular building
stones, including Diamond Harbour Volcanic Group rocks
at the Halswell quarry (Stoddart Basalt; Sewell et al.1988)
and Port Levy (Sewell & Weaver 1990). Basalt and trachyte
of the Lyttelton Volcanic Group were used extensively in
49
public buildings of Christchurch (Fig. 54), and Charteris
Bay Sandstone (Eyre Group) was also quarried for building
stone (Sewell et al.1988). Blocks of Lyttelton tuff and
agglomerate have also been used for building, although
they commonly fritter where exposed to the weather
(Hayward 1987). Harper Hills Basalt from Glentunnel was
used for local buildings and for part of Christs College in
Christchurch (Speight 1928; Hayward 1987). In northern
Canterbury, Oligocene to Early Miocene limestone has
been used locally (Field, Browne et al. 1989).
Phosphate
Extensive investigations of submarine phosphorite deposits
on the Chatham Rise (Wood et al. 1989) show that they
are distributed over at least 400 km2 of the sea floor, some
150 km west of the Chatham Islands. These have
accumulated as lag deposits, probably during the Miocene.
Estimated reserves are about 25 million tonnes, with an
overall grade of 66 kg/m2 (Wood et al. 1989). Onshore
deposits such as phosphatic nodules in Tioriori Group on
the Chatham Islands, and at the base of the Motunau Group,
have little economic potential.
Metallic minerals
Speights 1928 assessment that the Malvern Hills are
singularly deficient in metalliferous deposits of any
value applies generally to the QMAP Christchurch area.
Copper was prospected in the Selwyn Gorge in the 1880s
(Speight 1928), where a 50-metre adit remains open today,
and elsewhere in the area where metavolcanic rocks occur
within greywacke. The copper occurs in carbonate and
silicate minerals (Speight 1928), but recent analyses only
yielded up to 35 ppm Cu (Wright et al. 1989). Manganese
traces have been reported from High Peak Saddle (Malvern
Hills), possibly as oxide staining on chert (Speight 1928),
but have no economic value.
Warm springs
Warm springs with temperatures of 2027C occur at
several sites underlain by Lyttelton Volcanic Group rocks
around Banks Peninsula and the Avon-Heathcote estuary
(Mongillo & Clelland 1984; Wright et al. 1989). The water
has an isotopic composition similar to that of groundwater
in alluvial aquifers under Christchurch, suggesting that

Figure 54 The Christchurch Arts Centre is constructed mainly of local volcanic rocks: Hoon Hay basalt and Port Hills
basalt (Lyttelton Volcanic Group), and Halswell basalt (Diamond Harbour Volcanic Group). The archway pillars are of
Timaru basalt and the white facings of Oamaru limestone (Hayward 1987). Photo CN21103/31: D. L. Homer.

50
the spring water percolates into Lyttelton Volcanic Group
rocks from confined aquifers deep under the Canterbury
Plains (Sewell et al.1988; Sewell & Weaver 1990; Brown
& Weeber 1992). Neither the flows nor the temperatures
of the springs are adequate for commercial development
(Brown & Weeber 1992).
Groundwater
Groundwater is in great demand for domestic, agricultural
and industrial use in the Canterbury foothills and plains.
Little is known about the groundwater resources in the
inland basins of Canterbury, but groundwater resources
within Quaternary alluvial gravel of the Canterbury Plains
are extensively utilised. These groundwater systems
typically have a shallow unconfined aquifer with a water
table at less than 20 m depth and hydraulic connection
with any nearby surface water courses. Beneath the water
table, deeper aquifer zones are typically found at depths
of 3080 m and 130160 m (Brown 2001). Groundwater
yields tend to vary laterally over short distances, suggesting
that localised channels of more permeable gravel are
a significant feature of the groundwater flow regime.
Confined aquifers typically occur closer to the coast, where
gravel strata are interbedded with fine-grained sediments
that restrict vertical groundwater flow. Groundwater
movement beneath the plains is generally downward and
seaward, whereas groundwater under pressure in confined
aquifers beneath the coastal area migrates upward where
possible (Brown & Weeber 1992).
Shallow groundwater levels vary seasonally in response
to winter rainfall recharge and summer irrigation usage,
and shallow aquifers may show considerable short-term
fluctuations. Connections to surface water mean that
increased groundwater extraction may reduce flows in
rivers and springs, and also mean that groundwater is
vulnerable to contamination.
The shallow groundwater of the Canterbury Plains is
generally young. Dating and analysis of Canterbury Plains
groundwater (Stewart et al. 2002) show that most aquifer
recharge is from rainfall onto the plains, and from rivers
and streams in the foothills and ranges to the west. In the
Christchurch city to West Melton area, and from there out
towards Lake Ellesmere, the Waimakariri River is a major
source of recharge to the aquifers (Talbot et al. 1986; Brown
& Weeber 1992).
Southwest of the Rakaia River, the Rangitata Diversion
Race has, since the 1940s, supplied an abundance of water
for irrigation. Excess water from regular flooding of
paddocks (border dyke irrigation) has drained into the
shallow aquifers, becoming a major source of groundwater
recharge in this area (Brown 2001). All groundwater in
this area is very young, based on its nitrate content and on
tritium dating (Stewart et al. 2002). In contrast, groundwater
from confined aquifers beneath Christchurch contains none
of these human derivatives, and is thousands of years old
according to radiocarbon dating (Stewart et al. 2002).
Urban water-supply wells within Christchurch city tap at
least five confined aquifers, separated by less permeable
layers of silt, clay and peat, down to depths of 200 m or
more (Brown & Weeber 1992). The aquifers are mainly
recharged from the Waimakariri River in the Halkett/
McLeans Island area (Talbot et al. 1986; Brown & Weeber
1992). The geometry and characteristics of Christchurch
aquifers are complex and are still being investigated (for
example, Weeber 2002; White 2007).
Wells capable of yielding limited domestic and stock water
supplies can be drilled almost anywhere on the Canterbury
Plains, but larger volumes for irrigation (>1500 m3/day)
are more difficult to find. Production wells, for domestic
and stock supplies and increasingly for irrigation, are up to
250 m deep, and many tap both shallow and deep aquifers.
There is increasing demand for deep groundwater, due
to economic growth and because much of the shallow
groundwater resource is currently over-allocated
(Aitchison-Earl et al. 2004). Basement rocks in the
Canterbury ranges contain some groundwater in fractured
rock aquifers but these typically have very low permeability
and low yields. The volcanic rocks of Banks Peninsula
also contain groundwater in fractures, and there are some
semi-permanent springs fed from rain water. Water is
generally of poorer quality and more sensitive to rainfall
fluctuations than water from the plains aquifers (Sewell et
al. 1988). Future resources may come from aquifers within
older, deeper, Quaternary gravel, and possibly within Late
Cretaceous-Cenozoic sedimentary rocks, especially the
Kowai Formation.
Hydrogeological studies on Chatham Island indicate that
groundwater of good quality could occur in the southern
part of the island within Pitt Island Group volcanic rocks
(Campbell et al. 1993), but this resource is remote from
the main settlement areas. In the central part of the island
the groundwater is likely to be hard due to the influence of
limestone, and much of the surface water tends to be acidic
where it drains from peaty areas. Most households on the
islands collect rain water from rooftop catchments.
Coal
Economically significant coal deposits occur only in the
Broken River Formation. They have been worked at two
coalfields, one in the Malvern Hills and the other near
Avoca in the upper Waimakariri basin.
Coal seams were discovered in the Malvern Hills in 1851
and were being exploited as early as 1866. Over 70 mines
operated within the Malvern Hills Coalfield over the next
hundred years, but most were small and had a short life;
only one is still working (Fig. 55). The two most important
mines were Homebush (18721938) and Klondyke
(19291972) with outputs of approximately 356 000
tonnes each (Duff & Barry 1989). The total coal-in-ground
resource has been estimated at 520 Mt, but the quantity of
potentially recoverable coal is estimated at less than 25 Mt,
of which only 1.52 Mt could be recoverable by opencast
methods (Duff & Barry 1989).
51
Malvern Hills coal has low sulphur and low to moderate
ash (Wright et al. 1989), and ranges in rank from lignite
A to sub-bituminous C, except in places where igneous
intrusions have raised the rank to semi-anthracite (Speight
1928). Seams are typically lensoid and elongate in a NE/
SW direction (Duff & Barry 1989). Up to five seams are
present, from 12 m thick to an exceptional thickness of
9 m (Field, Browne et al. 1989). Some workings were in
small, faulted outliers (Speight 1928).
Coal seams in the upper Waimakariri basin occur in two areas,
separated by a belt of Rakaia terrane rocks. Commercial
mining has focused on the Avoca area, which is structurally
more complex than the adjacent Broken River area (Wright
et al. 1989). Avoca coal seams are lensoid and mostly less
than 5 m thick, although 7.5 m thick seams occur locally.
The coal is high in ash, sulphur and moisture. It is of sub-
bituminous B or A rank; as at Malvern, the coal locally
reaches semi-anthracite near igneous intrusions (Speight
1920; Duff & Barry 1989). Between 1918 and 1928 the Mt
Torlesse mines produced a total of 74 000 tonnes (Duff &
Barry 1989). An in-ground resource of 10 Mt in the Avoca
area (Duff & Barry 1989) is likely to be economic for small
scale operations only.
Lignite occurs on Pitt Island in thin seams within Waihere
Bay Group, where it has been used in local homes (Campbell
et al. 1993).
Hydrocarbons
Canterbury has had a long history of unsuccessful
petroleum exploration (Field, Browne et al. 1989). Wildcat
Figure 55 Coal seams in Broken River Formation are mined by opencast methods at Nimmos Mine in the Malvern Hills
(2007 photograph).
52
holes drilled in the onshore map area include Chertsey-1
(1914-21), J.D. George-1 and Leeston-1 (1969), and the
more recent Kowai-1 (1978), Arcadia-1 (2000) and Kate-1
(2008) drillholes, which target anticlinal closures. Only
Leeston-1 and Kowai-1 reached greywacke basement,
and none of the holes found significant hydrocarbons.
Traces of oil and a little inflammable gas were reported
from Chertsey-1, but subsequent authors have been
sceptical (Field, Browne et al. 1989). An offshore drilling
programme between 1970 and 1985 included one drillhole
in the map area, Resolution-1 (1975), which ended in a
Miocene basaltic sill related to Banks Peninsula volcanism.
The source rocks considered to have the most potential are
Clipper Formation (mid-Cretaceous, not exposed onshore),
and Eyre Group (Broken River and Ashley Mudstone
formations). Younger rocks are invariably thermally
immature (Field, Browne et al. 1989).
Petroleum exploration has also taken place on the
Chatham Rise. The Cretaceous Waihere Bay Group on
the Chatham Islands, and inferred offshore equivalents, are
potential source rocks (Wood et al. 1989). Geophysical
and geological data suggest that areas worthy of further
investigation extend from the Chatham Rise into the
Hikurangi and Bounty troughs (Wood et al. 1989; C.I.
Uruski, pers. comm. 2008).
The extensive peat deposits of Chatham Island were
investigated in the 1970s for their montan wax content, and
in the 1980s for their potential as a liquid fuel feedstock,
but no further work has been done. The potential yield
of the four licence areas was assessed as about 60 million
barrels of oil (Richards 1987; Campbell et al. 1993).
GEOLOGICAL HAZARDS
Geological hazards within the Christchurch map area
include earthquakes and related effects, landslides, floods,
erosion and sedimentation, tsunami and groundwater
contamination. The general nature of these hazards is
summarised here, but the information in this map and
text is not detailed enough for site-specific geotechnical
investigations or geological hazard zoning and assessments.
More detailed descriptions of hazards in the Christchurch
urban area are provided by Brown & Weeber (1992) and
Brown et al. (1995). Local authorities are responsible for
recording detailed hazard information, which is essential
for urban and rural planning purposes.
Earthquakes
Since European settlement, more significant earthquakes
have originated beneath the Canterbury ranges and basins
and Pegasus Bay than beneath the Canterbury Plains
or Banks Peninsula (Anderson & Webb 1994; Fig. 56).
Seismicity at the Chatham Islands is low, with only four
small earthquakes centred in that area since 1965. The
distribution of earthquakes is caused by the ongoing
collision between the Australian and Pacific plates that is
deforming and uplifting the Southern Alps, and the ranges
of Canterbury and Marlborough (Stirling et al. 2001,
2002).
Earthquakes are described in terms of Magnitude and
Modified Mercalli intensity. The Magnitude (M) scale ranks
earthquakes according to the total amount of energy released
at their point of origin. The installation of seismograph
networks in the 1940s allowed magnitudes to be calculated.
The magnitudes and locations of earlier historic earthquakes
have been estimated using reported earthquake shaking
intensities. The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM;
see text box) describes how the effects of an earthquake

The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM)

The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (summarised from Downes (1995), Dowrick (1996) and Hancox et al. (2002) is a
descriptive scale used to rank the intensity of an earthquake at a particular location. The intensity of any earthquake
will vary from place to place, because of factors such as distance from the epicentre and localised differences in
ground conditions (for example, shaking will be much greater on swampy ground than on solid rock).

MM 2 Felt by people at rest, on upper floors or favourably placed.

MM 3 Felt indoors; hanging objects may swing, vibration similar to passing of light trucks.

MM 4 Generally noticed indoors but not outside. Light sleepers may be awakened. Vibration like passing of heavy
traffic. Doors and windows rattle. Walls and frames of buildings may be heard to creak.

MM 5 Generally felt outside, and by almost everyone indoors. Most sleepers awakened. A few people alarmed.
Some glassware and crockery may be broken. Open doors may swing.

MM 6 Felt by all. People and animals alarmed. Many run outside. Furniture or objects may move on smooth
surfaces. Objects fall from shelves. Glassware and crockery broken. Slight damage to some types of buildings. A few
cases of chimney damage. Loose material may be dislodged from sloping ground. A few very small (e.g. <1000 m3)
shallow landslides and rockfalls occur.

MM 7 General alarm. Furniture and appliances may be shifted and unstable items overturned. Unreinforced stone
and brick walls cracked. Some pre-earthquake code buildings damaged. Roof tiles may be dislodged. Many domestic
chimneys broken. Small falls of sand and gravel banks. Some fine cracks appear in sloping ground and ridge crests.
Rockfalls from steep slopes and cuttings are common. A few small to moderate landslides (e.g. 1 000 to 10 000 m3)
occur on steeper slopes. Some instances of liquefaction at susceptible sites.

MM 8 Alarm may approach panic. Steering of cars greatly affected. Some serious damage to pre-earthquake code
masonry buildings. Most reinforced domestic chimneys damaged, many brought down. Monuments and elevated
tanks twisted or brought down. Some post-1980 brick veneer dwellings damaged. Houses not secured to foundations
may move. Cracks may appear on slopes and in wet ground. On slopes in steep or weak ground, numerous small
to moderate landslides and some large landslides (e.g. 100 000 m3). Collapse of roadside cuttings and unsupported
excavations. Small sand fountains and other instances of liquefaction.

MM 9 Very poor quality unreinforced masonry destroyed. Pre-earthquake code masonry buildings heavily damaged
or collapse. Damage or distortion to some pre-1980 buildings and bridges. Houses not secured to foundations shifted
off. Brick veneers fall and expose framing. Conspicuous cracking of flat and sloping ground. On steep slopes, many
small to large landslides and some very large (>1 000 000 m3) landslides and rock avalanches that may block narrow
valleys and form lakes. Liquefaction effects intensified, with large sand fountains and extensive cracking or settlement
of weak ground.

MM 10 Most unreinforced masonry structures destroyed. Many pre-earthquake code buildings destroyed. Many
pre-1980 buildings and bridges seriously damaged. Many post-1980 buildings and bridges moderately damaged or
permanently distorted. Widespread cracking of flat and sloping ground. Widespread and severe landsliding on sloping
ground. Very large landslides (>106m3) from steep mountain faces and coastal cliffs. Widespread and severe liquefaction.

53
 1901 Cheviot
1951
Cheviot 1965
1929 Arthur's Pass Chatham
Rise
1922 Motunau
1995 Cass

1881 Castle Hill

1987
Pegasus Bay

1869
Christchurch

1870 Lake Ellesmere

Shallow Earthquakes
0 50
MAGNITUDE
Kilometres 4.1 - 5.0
5.1 - 6.0
N
Active fault 6.1 - 7.0

Highway 7.1 - 9.0

!
(!
( ! !
( ((!
( !
( !
(! Figure 56 A: Locations of shallow earthquakes
!
( (!
((
! (!
(!
(!
( !
! !
(!
(!(!!
(
(!
(
!
( (
!
( !
(!
(
!
!
(
!
( !
(!
( !
(
!
(
!
(
!
(!
!
(
!
(!
( (less than 40 km depth) with magnitudes greater
!
(! !
(!
(
!
!
(
(!
( !
( !
( !
(!
( ( !
( !
(
(!
(!
( ! ( ! ( than M 4 from January 1943 to March 2008. Also
(!
!(!
(! (
!
(!(! !
(
!
(
!
((!
!(
!
( shown are known significant earthquakes (generally
(!
!
(
!
((
!
( !!
((
!
(
magnitude M 5 and larger) between 1840 and 1942.
!
(
( !
! ( Seismic activity is greatest in the zone of plate
!
(!(! (
boundary deformation in the Canterbury ranges
Deep
!
( Earthquakes and basins and northern Pegasus Bay. Some small
earthquakes are aftershocks associated with larger
M>4 earthquake events. Note that the earthquake record
prior to 1900 is incomplete.
B: Deep earthquakes (greater than 40 km) with
magnitudes greater than M 4, since 1943. Deep
events have been concentrated near the subduction
zone beneath the northern South Island.
Adapted from the New Zealand Earthquake
B Catalogue (2008).

54
are experienced at particular locations. The MM intensity
level is determined from the effects of shaking on people,
fittings, structures and the environment. Although the
scale goes up to level 12 (total destruction), MM10 is the
highest intensity that has been reliably observed in New
Zealand. The MM intensity generally diminishes with
increasing distance from the earthquake epicentre, but is
also influenced by soil conditions and topography.
Little is known of pre-European earthquakes, but six shallow
earthquakes of moderate size have originated beneath the
Christchurch map area since European settlement (Fig. 56).
In June 1869, an earthquake with shaking intensities up
to MM7 and possibly MM8 brought down chimneys and
damaged masonry in parts of Christchurch city (Elder et
al. 1991). The earthquake was centred at shallow depth
beneath the city, and may have been up to magnitude M5.8
(Pettinga et al. 2001; Stirling et al. 2001; NZ Earthquake
Catalogue 2008). Further chimney damage occurred in
Christchurch and Lyttelton during an earthquake in August
1870 that was felt from Greymouth to Dunedin. Stirling
et al. (2001) used felt reports to assign a location beneath
Lake Ellesmere and a magnitude of M6.5, although recent
research suggests that its magnitude may have been less
(M5.8; NZ Earthquake Catalogue 2008). In December
1881, an M6 earthquake centred in the Castle Hill basin
was felt widely in the South Island. It caused damage to
chimneys in Christchurch and to the spire of Christchurch
Cathedral (Eiby 1968; Stirling et al. 2001). In September
1974, a M5.1 earthquake centred north of Loburn produced
felt intensities of MM4 in northern Canterbury and
Christchurch (Seismological Observatory 1974), while a
M5.2 earthquake near Ashley Gorge in July 1986 generated
local intensities up to MM5 (Seismological Observatory
1986). In March 1987, a M5.2 earthquake centred beneath
Pegasus Bay 50 km northeast of New Brighton produced
intensities up to MM7. Paving was cracked in New Brighton,
while chimneys were damaged and items fell from shelves
in nearby areas (Seismological Observatory 1987; Downes
1995). A shallow M4.5 earthquake centred under Halswell
in September 1971 was close enough to Christchurch to
cause felt intensities up to MM5, with reports of minor
damage (Seismological Observatory 1971).
and liquefaction occurred at Leithfield Beach and Waikuku
Beach (Downes 1995). Also felt widely in the Christchurch
map area, but causing little damage, were the 1929 Arthurs
Pass, 1946 Lake Coleridge, 1951 Cheviot, 1968 Inangahua,
1994 Arthurs Pass and 1995 Cass earthquakes (Downes
1995; Pettinga et al. 2001).
A longer pre-history of large earthquakes is preserved in
late Quaternary fault scarps (Fig. 57), some of which show
repeated fault ruptures (for example, Pettinga et al. 2001;
Howard et al. 2005). Recurrence intervals are thought
to range from about 1300 years to more than 5000 years,
although detailed rupture histories are known for only a few
faults. Folds or warps that buckle the ground surface are
thought to develop over active faults at depth. In northern
Pegasus Bay, Quaternary faults and related folds beneath
the sea floor have been revealed by geophysical surveys.
These structures have low rates of activity, with estimated
rupture recurrence intervals up to tens of thousands of years
(Barnes 1996).
Future moderate to large earthquakes can be expected
on active faults in the Christchurch map area, resulting
in local damage. Large earthquakes may also occur on
undetected faults that do not extend to the ground surface,
with deformation involving surface folding rather than
faulting. Major earthquakes originating further afield, for
instance on the Alpine or Hope faults, are expected to cause
significant ground shaking within the map area.

More commonly, damaging levels of shaking experienced

in the Christchurch map area have been caused by
earthquakes centred further afield. On 1 September 1888,
a major earthquake (M7.1; Smith & Berryman 1986;
Cowan 1991) centred on the Hope Fault in the Hanmer
region was felt throughout the South Island. Chimneys
were damaged in northeastern Christchurch city and minor
rockfalls occurred around Lyttelton Harbour. The upper
8 m of the Christchurch Cathedral spire collapsed (Cowan
1991). A large earthquake (M6.8) centred near Cheviot in
November 1901 was felt widely in central New Zealand
and caused widespread damage in northern Canterbury,
including ground liquefaction near Kaiapoi (Berrill et al.
Figure 57 Ruptures of the Ashley Fault have produced a
1994; Stirling et al. 2001; NZ Earthquake Catalogue 2008). zone of fault scarps across Q2 and older river terraces north
In the 25 December 1922 M6.4 earthquake centred near of the Ashley River at Loburn. The main fault scarps are
Motunau, chimneys collapsed from Cheviot to Rangiora indicated by red arrows. Photo CN3563/4: D.L. Homer.

55
Table 2 Estimated return periods for earthquake shaking events at selected locations in the Christchurch map area (W.
Smith, pers. comm. 2008) derived from the New Zealand seismic hazard model (Stirling et al. 2002). The table indicates
that, for example, earthquake shaking of MM6 is likely to be experienced once in a 25-year period at all these localities,
and possibly twice at Springfield or Amberley, whereas MM9 shaking may be experienced once in 900 years at Springfield
but only once in 9000 years in Christchurch.
Intensity Mean return period (years)
Christchurch Ashburton
MM6 17 21
MM7 76 97
MM8 630 730
MM9 9300 9300
Currently it is not possible to predict earthquakes. Rather, a
statistical approach of probabilistic seismic hazard analyses
(Stirling et al. 2001, 2002) provides estimates of how
frequently, on average, various levels of shaking intensity
from all potential earthquake sources can be expected to
recur at specific locations (Table 2).
Ground shaking is amplified on weak ground, particularly
where unconsolidated sediments are more than 20 m thick,
such as beneath estuaries or river plains. These conditions
apply for much of urban Christchurch. Amplification may
increase shaking intensity by one or two MM intensity
levels compared with nearby areas underlain by hard rock
(McVerry et al. 2006). Liquefaction, where water-saturated
soils and sediments temporarily change from a solid to
a liquid state, is a common effect of strong earthquake
ground shaking and can cause severe damage to buildings
and embankments. Liquefaction may occur in response
to shaking intensities of MM6 or higher, and was reported
near Pegasus Bay in the 1901 and 1922 earthquakes. An
additional hazard is the physical rupture or buckling of the
ground surface at a fault during an earthquake. Structures
very close to active faults or folds are potentially at risk
from ground surface deformation.
Landslides
Landslides are a potential hazard in the downlands, hills
and mountains of the Christchurch map area. Quaternary
deposits, especially loess or colluvium, and weak Late
Cretaceous to Pliocene rocks may be unstable on moderate
slopes, whereas harder Paleozoic or Mesozoic rocks are
commonly stable in quite steep slopes. However, several
prehistoric rock avalanches have occurred from steep
mountain slopes in basement rocks, notably at Mt Binser
and Lake Pearson.
Ground saturation is a contributing factor in most shallow-
seated landslides, for example, those on Banks Peninsula
involving loess and colluvium. Deep-seated landslides
occur particularly within Late Cretaceous to Pliocene rocks,
and are related to the composition and strength of the rock
materials. Many are complex features initiated on bedding
planes, and may include translational slides, rotational
slumps and plastic flows. Bentonitic mudstones underlying
limestones in the northern part of the Christchurch map area
56
Springfield Amberley
11 12
36 38
190 200
910 1300
are particularly unstable. Mobilisation of these mudstones
has commonly disrupted the overlying limestone, forming
blocky earthflows (Fig. 8). Many deep-seated landslides
are ancient, natural features of the landscape. Most of
the larger ones probably evolved over long periods (for
example, the late Quaternary). Their movements may occur
either as progressive creep or in episodic events separated
by dormant phases, controlled primarily by erosion at the
foot of the slope.
Landslides, especially rock avalanches, may dam water
courses creating further potential hazards including dam-
break floods, debris flows, and downstream sedimentation.
The Waimakariri (Otarama) gorge is potentially subject
to such hazards (Yetton 2004). Similar hazards exist at
smaller scales within many river or stream valleys in hill
country, such as on Banks Peninsula and in the Canterbury
ranges and basins.
Erosion, flooding and sedimentation
Flooding and sedimentation hazards exist on the active
parts of alluvial plains. Frequent natural changes in
channel course are characteristic of the types of rivers that
have built the Canterbury Plains. Land near the lower
reaches of the Waimakariri and Ashley rivers is particularly
susceptible to over-bank flooding and sedimentation
hazards (for example, Brown & Weeber 1992; Canterbury
Regional Council 1995). The Waimakariri alluvial plain
extends south to Lake Ellesmere, and the present course
of the river near Kaiapoi is at the northern edge of its
Holocene floodplain. The Halswell, Heathcote, Avon
and Styx are spring-fed rivers lying in former channels
of the Waimakariri, and the Avon-Heathcote Estuary is a
former Waimakariri mouth. The modern beds of the lower
Waimakariri and Ashley rivers are artificially narrow, held
in place by engineered embankments (stopbanks) intended
to contain flood and sediment flows, and allow development
on the former floodplains. Before these flood protection
works, Waimakariri floodwaters overflowed near Halkett
and spread down old channels to reach the Avon four times
between 1848 and 1868 (Brown & Weeber 1992). The
lower reaches of most rivers are confined to some extent
by stopbanks. The Eyre River has been artificially diverted
into the Waimakariri, and a canal diverts the lower Halswell
River more directly into Lake Ellesmere.
Alluvial fans commonly occur at the margins of basins and
valleys throughout the Canterbury range and basin area
and in parts of Banks Peninsula. These dynamic landforms
grow during episodic severe rainstorms, often by flash
debris floods that deposit sediment rapidly and may cause
sudden changes in stream courses.
Coastal erosion affects the Canterbury Bight shoreline
from Taumutu southwards, with average coastal cliff
retreat rates of between about 0.3 and 3 mm/yr (Gibb 1978;
Fig. 10). Erosion events happen mainly during periods of
high tides with heavy seas. The shorelines of Kaitorete
Spit, the bay-heads of Banks Peninsula, and Pegasus Bay
are generally accreting, but the coastline near the Avon-
Heathcote Estuary is very dynamic, with alternating phases
of erosion and accretion (Gibb 1978; Findlay & Kirk 1988;
McFadgen & Goff 2005). Significant sea-level rise may
accelerate coastal erosion and increase flooding.
A distinctive type of erosion hazard affects slopes underlain
by loess on Banks Peninsula and the Port Hills. Tunnel
gullies develop along cracks formed by wetting and drying
of the soil; a peculiar property of loess, dispersivity, allows
subsurface erosion to occur within narrow channels up to
several metres deep (Fig. 51). Subsidence and collapse
holes eventually pose potential hazards to buildings and
roadways. Although they form naturally, human factors
Figure 58 Water poured into the dry dock at Lyttelton during several of the tidal surges from the May 1960 tsunami.
Photograph reproduced by permission of The Christchurch Star.
such as vegetation clearance and poor management of
surface drainage may greatly accelerate tunnel gully
development (Brown & Weeber 1992).
Tsunami
Tsunami are waves or surges generated when a large
volume of water is rapidly displaced. The most common
causes of tsunami are large earthquakes that rupture and
displace the sea bed, submarine or coastal landslides, and
volcanic eruptions. Ocean tsunami generated by very
large earthquakes can cause life-threatening damage many
thousands of kilometres from their source. In contrast,
tsunami generated by volcanoes and landslides generally
have only localised effects. There are many historical
records of damaging tsunami in the Christchurch map
area (G.L. Downes, unpublished NZ Tsunami Database).
Banks Peninsula and the Chatham Islands are particularly
susceptible to the effects of tsunami generated by South
American subduction zone earthquakes, such as those of
1868, 1877 and 1960, because of the wave-guiding effects
of the Chatham Rise (Power et al. 2007).
In 1868, large waves reached Chatham Island from the
northeast. At Tupuangi the Maori settlement was washed
away and the residents left destitute, while houses were
destroyed at Waitangi West and Te Raki and at least one
57
life was lost. Houses and boats were damaged at Waitangi,
and houses at Owenga about 10 m above high water mark
were flattened. In Canterbury, many large waves ran up
the Waimakariri River at Kaiapoi, shifting the channel and
bar, and damaging boats and property. Violent waves and
substantial damage to shipping occurred at Lyttelton, where
tidal disturbances continued for three days. At Pigeon Bay
and Little Akaloa, incoming waves caused substantial
property damage and flooding over several days, and
washed away a bridge more than 3 km inland at Okains
Bay (Downes, unpublished).
The 1877 tsunami was widely reported on Banks Peninsula
but caused less damage than that of 1868. The 1960 tsunami
caused abnormal tidal surges at the port of Lyttelton (Fig.
58) and damage at Teddington, where the hotel and farm
land were flooded and stock drowned. Successive surges
flooded buildings on the waterfront at Charteris Bay, Purau,
Port Levy and Akaroa, and the main road bridge at Okains
Bay was again destroyed. From Sumner to Kaiapoi there
were reports of abnormal tide levels, channel scouring,
violent surges of water and damage to small craft. On
Chatham Island the sea washed some distance inland at
Waitangi and Waitangi West (Downes, unpublished).
Local earthquakes may also cause tsunami or other coastal
effects although these typically affect smaller areas. For
example, a large wave at Lyttelton and river bores in the
Waimakariri, Avon and Heathcote resulted from the 1855
M8.2 Wairarapa earthquake, and the 1922 M6.4 earthquake,
centred near Motunau, caused seiching in Lyttelton Harbour
(Downes, unpublished). Rupture on offshore faults has the
potential to cause large and damaging tsunami.
Groundwater contamination
Unconfined aquifers are vulnerable to pollution from
adjacent land use activities. Potential sources of
contamination include landfills, underground storage tanks,
sewerage systems, fertiliser use, chemical spills and saltwater
intrusion (Weeber 2002), and aquifer contamination around
Christchurch city has been extensively researched.
58
Shallow, unconfined groundwater is vulnerable to bacterial
(faecal coliform) contamination, but in Canterbury
such contamination is rare in wells deeper than 50 m
(Hanson et al. 2006). Introduced nitrate is present at
moderate concentrations in much of the Canterbury Plains
groundwater, and concentrations exceed drinking-water
standards in some wells. Groundwater recharged primarily
by soil drainage generally has concentrations higher than
3 mg/L, reflecting the influence of waste disposal activities,
and an increase in cropping and fertiliser use after about
1950 (Hanson 2002; Smith & Hanson 2006; Stewart et al.
2002). East of Ashburton, localised nitrate contamination
has been linked to meat works effluent (Hayward & Hanson
2004).
Arsenic contamination occurs in areas with reducing
groundwater conditions, such as South Brighton Spit
and Woodend-Waikuku, which also tend to have high
concentrations of ammonia, iron and manganese (Smith &
Hanson 2006). Because of this association, and its detection
in wells up to 200 m deep, most arsenic is thought to occur
naturally (Pattle Delamore Partners Ltd 2001) but local
arsenic contamination from timber treatment operations
has also been identified (Hayward 2002).
Hydrocarbons have been detected in groundwater
around industrial areas of Christchurch city, generally at
concentrations below drinking-water standards (Smith &
Hanson 2006). The main sources are probably industrial
sites, landfills, and leaking storage tanks. A hydrocarbon
leachate plume has been detected near a landfill in Kaiapoi
(Hayward & Smith 1999; Smith & Hanson 2006).
With increasing abstraction of groundwater, there is
potential for seawater intrusion into aquifers. Wells in the
coastal area of Christchurch city are monitored regularly
(for example, Smith & Hanson 2006), and some wells in
the Woolston-Heathcote area show evidence of saltwater
intrusion (Hertel 1998; Charteris & Ettema 1999). Recent
monitoring suggests that reducing groundwater usage can
reverse the process (Ettema 2005).
AVAILABILITY OF QMAP DATA
The geological map accompanying this booklet is based on
information stored in the QMAP Geographic Information
System maintained by GNS Science. The data on the map
are a subset of available information. Other single or multi-
factor maps can be generated from the GIS, for example,
maps showing single rock types, or mineral localities in
relation to host rocks. Other digital data sets which may
be integrated with the basic geology include gravity and
magnetic surveys, active faults, earthquakes, landslides,
mineral resources and localities (from GERM), fossil
localities (from FRED), and petrological samples (from
PETLAB). Data can be presented for user-defined areas or
within specified distances from roads or coastlines. Maps
can be produced at varying scales, bearing in mind the scale
of data capture and the generalisation involved in digitising;
maps produced at greater than 1:50 000 scale will not show
accurate, detailed geological information unless they are
based on point data (for example, structural information).
If required, QMAP series maps can also be made available
in digital form, using standard data interchange formats.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The map and text were compiled by Jane Forsyth, David
Barrell and Richard Jongens. Useful discussions with
J. Bradshaw, J. Campbell, P. Tonkin, A. Wandres and S.
Weaver (University of Canterbury), P. Almond (Lincoln
University), P. Robinson (University of Massachusetts
and Geological Survey of Norway), D. Lee (University of
Otago), C. Adams, J. Begg, H. Campbell, E. Kennedy, N.
Mortimer, I. Turnbull, R. Wood (GNS Science), T. Webb
(Landcare Research) and J. Schmidt (NIWA) improved the
map and text. G. Downes gave access to the unpublished
New Zealand Tsunami Database. P. Johnson (Landcare
Research), J. Begg, G. Leonard, M. Rattenbury, M. Terezow,
D. Townsend and I. Turnbull (GNS Science) provided
photographs for the text. J. McCloy at Port of Lyttelton
kindly provided the photograph in Figure 58. Photographs
not otherwise credited are taken by the authors.
Field assistance was provided by J. Begg, T. Cross, H. Fraser,
P. Glassey, J. Lee, G. Leonard, M. Johnston, H. Phipps, M.
Rattenbury and D. Townsend. For transport to remote areas
we used Christchurch Helicopters and Waimak Alpine Jets.
The numerous landowners and runholders within the map
area are thanked for allowing access in particular Selwyn
Plantation Board, Flock Hill, Craigieburn, Mt White,
Landco (Lees Valley), Richon, Kowai Bush, Mt Torlesse,
Brooksdale, Annavale, Dalethorpe, Flagpole, Hartley
Hills, High Peaks, Steventon, and Gowan Lea and the
Department of Conservation for a Research and Collection
Permit.
For access to university theses and other unpublished
information, such as the North Canterbury GIS, we thank
the University of Canterbury in particular A. Wandres, J.
Pettinga and S. Weaver of the Department of Geological
Sciences and the library staff of the Department of
Geography. Further thanks are due to the Agriculture
and Life Sciences Division of Lincoln University. K. Holt
The data record maps on which the digital geology is
based are filed at the GNS Science office in Dunedin and,
although unpublished, are available for consultation. The
map units and geological legends used on the detailed maps
are based on a lithostratigraphic mapping philosophy, and
may differ from those shown on this published QMAP
sheet. The QMAP database will be maintained, and may
be updated where new geologic mapping improves existing
information. For new or additional geological information,
for prints of this map at other scales, for selected data or
combinations of data sets, or for derivative or single-factor
maps based on QMAP data, please contact:
QMAP Leader
GNS Science
P. O. Box 30 368
Lower Hutt
(Massey University) kindly gave access to her PhD thesis.
P. Abraham facilitated access to reports in the Groundwater
Resources Section library of Environment Canterbury.
Seismic reflection data was generously provided by D.
Bennett and S. Langdale of Austral Pacific Energy Ltd
(formerly Indo-Pacific Energy), and C. Dorn and A. Green
of ETH Zurich. Unpublished openfile petroleum reports
were sourced from Crown Minerals, Ministry of Economic
Development. Topographic and cultural data were sourced
from Land Information New Zealand (Crown copyright
reserved).
NIWA is thanked for providing access to the bathymetry
contours, and the offshore fault data developed by the
FRST-funded Consequences of Earth Ocean Change
programme (CO1X0203). In particular we thank Geoffroy
Lamarche.
All or parts of the map and text were reviewed by J. Begg,
G. Browne, H. Campbell, S. Cox, B. Field, P. Glassey,
M. Isaac, N. Mortimer, A. Nicol, M. Rattenbury and I.
Turnbull (GNS Science); K. Bassett, J. Bradshaw, S.
Weaver (University of Canterbury), D. Lee (University of
Otago) and M. Johnston.
Development and maintenance of the ARC/INFO GIS
database were by B. Smith Lyttle, R. Jongens, D. Heron
and M. Rattenbury. Digitising and data capture were by
K. Lyttle, B. Smith Lyttle, R. Jongens and H. Fraser. The
text was edited and prepared for publication by J. Aitken,
P. Murray and P. Carthew.
Funding for the QMAP project is provided by the
Foundation for Research Science and Technology under
contracts C05X0206 and C05X0401.
59
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67
This map illustrates the geology of the Christchurch area, which includes the plains and foothills north
and west of Christchurch city, as well as Banks Peninsula, at a scale of 1:250 000. The Chatham Islands,
which lie 850 km to the east, are also included. The map is one of a series initiated in 1996, which will
cover all of New Zealand. Geological information has been obtained from published and unpublished
mapping by researchers from GNS Science, NIWA, universities and the hydrocarbon exploration
industry. All geological data are held in a Geographic Information System, available in digital format on
request. The accompanying illustrated text summarises the geology, landforms, and tectonic history of
the area, as well as the geological resources and potential geological hazards.

The basement rock of the whole region comprises Late Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks of
the Torlesse composite terrane, which are metamorphosed to schist on the Chatham Islands. A blanket
of Late Cretaceous to Pliocene sedimentary rocks was deposited across the region. This sedimentary
sequence was punctuated by unconformities and volcanic episodes, including the building of large
volcanoes at the Chatham Islands and on Banks Peninsula. Unconsolidated Quaternary sediments are
widespread in the Canterbury basins, plains, and offshore area, and on the Chatham Islands. The
effects of Pliocene and Quaternary tectonic deformation are evident in the landscape north and west of
Christchurch city, and many active faults or folds are recognised. The main geological resources are
aggregate, limestone, clay and coal, and there is some potential for hydrocarbon discoveries.
Groundwater resources beneath the Canterbury Plains are substantial, but are vulnerable to
contamination. The Christchurch area is subject to earthquake hazards, while slope instability is
widespread in hill areas. Low-lying coastal areas are vulnerable to tsunami.

Rhythmically bedded sandstone and siltstone of Rakaia terrane are buckled into chevron folds on
the west bank of the Waimakariri River near Kowai Bush.

ISBN 978-0-478-19649-8
Photo: D. J. A. Barrell

9 780478 196498
ISBN 978-0-478-19649-8