Geology of the Whangaparaoa area, eastern bay of plenty

Abstract

Igneous rocks of problematical Upper Mesozoic to Paleogene age are marginal to the area and are mapped as undifferentiated lithologies belonging to the Matakaoa Volcanic Group. The claim that a continuous graben exists from Cape Runaway to Hick's Bay, which mcludes the Whangaparaoa area, is examined and is partly rejected. In presenting a geological history of the area we correlate an unconformity spanning most of the Miocene with uplift in a nearby area considered by a previous worker to be the source region for a series of thrust slices.