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Multiple Sources for Sea-Rafted Loisels Pumice, New Zealand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Phil Shane ,
Paul Froggatt ,
Ian Smith  and
Murray Gregory
Phil Shane
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
Paul Froggatt
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand
Ian Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
Murray Gregory
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
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Abstract

Sea-rafted Loisels Pumice is one of the few stratigraphic markers used to correlate late Holocene coastal deposits in New Zealand. Along with underlying sea-rafted products of the local Taupo eruption of ca. 1800 yr B.P., these events have been used to bracket the first arrival of humans at New Zealand. Loisels Pumice is dacitic to rhyolitic (SiO2 63–78 wt%) in composition, but individual clasts are homogeneous (SiO2 range ± 1 wt%). Characteristics include very low K2O (0.5–1.75 wt%) and Rb (<25 ppm) and a mineralogy dominated by calcic and mafic xenocrysts. Similar features are shared by pumices of the Tonga–Kermadec arc, suggesting a common tholeiitic oceanic source. Interclast diversity of Loisels Pumice suggests that it is the product of several eruptive events from different volcanoes. The differences in glass and mineral compositions found at various sites can be explained if the deposits are from different events. A multisource origin can also partially explain the discrepancy in reported 14C ages (ca. 1500–600 yr B.P.) from different localities. Therefore, the value of Loisels Pumice as a stratigraphic marker is questionable, and it does not constrain the arrival of humans. The predominant westward drift of historic Tonga–Kermadec arc pumices and prevailing ocean currents suggest a long anticlockwise semicircular transport route into the Tasman Sea before sea-rafted pumice arrival in New Zealand. The diversity of the pumices indicates that silicic eruptions frequently occur from the predominantly basic oceanic volcanoes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , May 1998 , pp. 271 - 279
Copyright
University of Washington

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