The Marshall Paraconformity (Note)

Abstract

The Whaingaroan-Duntroonian “Marshall Paraconformity”, promoted as an unconformity of international extent, is but one of many extensive unconformities within the preserved Tertiary record of the Canterbury region, New Zealand. Forty-six measured sections in Canterbury contain paleontological control adequate to date features indicating intra-Tertiary and Late Cretaceous erosion, non-deposition, and condensed sequences at many stratigraphic levels. These data indicate that Oligocene rocks have been the most studied of the Tertiary rocks in Canterbury, and that it may be premature to elect, as the principal of New Zealand's Tertiary unconformities, the “Marshall Paraconformity”.