New Zealand Journal of Botany abstract

A mid Otira Glaciation palaeosol and flora from the Castle Hill Basin, Canterbury, New Zealand

C. J. BURROWS

Department of Plant and Microbial Sciences
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch, New Zealand

N. T. MOAR

Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research
P. O. Box 69
Lincoln, New Zealand

Abstract  A section exposed at the Broken River road cutting in Castle Hill Basin revealed a palaeosol resting on reddish, rusty gravel and beneath 30 m of fresh-looking, grey, glacio-fluvial outwash gravel deposited by a meltwater stream during the Blackwater advances of the Waimakariri Glacier. A radiocarbon date >37 000 +/- 200 yr B.P. (NZ 7518) was obtained for the palaeosol. Pollen spectra from it are dominated by a herbaceous plant assemblage indicating cold climatic conditions. Redeposited pollen from adjacent Tertiary rocks is also present. The soil appears to have been formed in a marshy habitat soon after the onset of the Blackwater 1 glacial episode (the first cold phase of the middle part of the Otira Glaciation).

Keywords  glacial advance; glacio-fluvial outwash; radiocarbon date; herbaceous pollen flora; cold climate

B96016

Received 21 February 1996; accepted 11 July 1996

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