Geology and Minerals

Geology of the Tasman District

The Tasman region, and the small adjoining Nelson region, form one of the more geologically interesting regions of New Zealand. It contains the oldest rocks of anywhere on New Zealand's main islands. It contains all the main terranes that make up New Zealand's basement. These basement rocks include Ultramafic rocks, such as Serpentine and Dunite, and valuable minerals, such as Gold. The Nelson region is bordered to the south by the Alpine Fault (usually named the Wairau Fault in the Wairau Valley), the main fault forming the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate, that generated the Southern Alps.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸Cave of El Soplao
• ▸Dudou
• ▸Coldwater Sandstone

Uncatalogued shelf

Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.