Friends of the Pleistocene Seminar Series

The Chatham Islands represent the eastern-most terrestrial exposure of Zealandia. Following separation from Gondwana in the Late Cretaceous, Zealandia subsided tectonically. The Chatham Islands region remained almost entirely submarine for 63 m.y. of Cenozoic time, only to re-emerge as land during Late Pliocene time, about 3 Ma. This presentation will review 1) the evidence for the timing of emergence of the Islands, 2) their paleogeographic evolution, and 3) what the post-emergence geological record implies about any ongoing tectonism in the region.