GSNZ Auckland branch meeting
Cenozoic paleogeographic and tectonic evolution of northern Zealandia with Rupert Sutherland, Victoria University of Wellington
Zealandia is bigger than India, but most of it lies in greater than 1km water depth and hence it is very sparsely sampled and its offshore geology poorly known. International Ocean Discovery Expedition 371 sampled 6 sites in the Tasman Sea and has provided new insights into the paleogeographic and tectonic evolution. The prevailing hypothesis since the 1970s that Zealandia separated from Australia in the Cretaceous and then just passively subsided is shown to be a gross over-simplification. Instead, Paleogene initiation of the Pacific Ring of Fire caused profound changes that have broad consequences for our understanding of regional flora and fauna, and for our global understanding of subduction initiation processes.