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A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements River terraces and other geomorphic features, Castle Hill Basin, Canterbury, New Zealand Item Type Thesis-Reproduction (electronic); text; maps Authors Breed, William J. Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 28/09/2021 09:14:09 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/191425 RIVER TERRACES AND OTHER GEOMORPHICFEATURES OF CASTLE HILL BASIN, CANTERBURY, NEW ZEALAND by William J. Breed A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1960 STATENT BY THE AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and. is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable with- out special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests of permission for extended quota- tion from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in their judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholar- ship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: 'wd S62PROVAL BY THESIS DIHECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: JOHN F. LANCE Date Professor of Geology RIVER TERRACES AND OTHER GEOMORPHICFEATURES OF CASTLE HILL BASIN, CANTERBURY, NEW ZEALAND ABSTRACT Extensive systems of terraces in Castle Hill Basin are evidence for widespread cycles of aggradation and de- gradation of the rivers. The surfaces formed during periods of aggradation have been named as follows: Bridge Hill surface, Long Spur surface, Enys surface, Cheeseman surfaces and Post-Cheeseman surfaces.Evidence from moraines in- dicates that these aggradational surfaces were created during periods of glaciation when the streams of the valley were overloaded. Degradation and valley deepening ensued during non-glacial conditions, leaving the former river floodplains preserved as glacial terraces. The terraces ol' Castle Hill Basin have been correlated with similar surfaces in the Waimakariri Valley described by Dr. Maxwell Gage. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page AC KNOWLEDGNTS vii INTRODUCTION 1 Location 1 Previous Work 2 Purpose and Methods 3 GEOMORPHIC AND GEOLOGIC SETTING 6 Pre-Pleistocene Stratigraphy 6 Physiographic Setting 8 GLACIAL CHRONOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND AND THE WAIMAKARIRI VALLEY 11 LATE PLEISTOCENE TERRACESAND MORA.INES 13 Bridge Hill surface 14 Long Spur surface 14 Enys surface 15 Moraines 16 Cheeseman surfaces 18 Moraines 20 Post-Cheesenian surfaces 20 INTERGLACIAL INTERVALS 22 CORRELATION 23 PLEISTOCENE GEOLOGIC HISTORY 25 Avoca Glaciation 25 Wood.stock Advance 26 Otarania Advance 27 Blackwater Advances 28 Poulter Advances 30 OTHER GEOMORPHIC FEATURES 31 REFERENCES CITED 33 LIST OF FIGURES Figure IndexMap of New Zealandshowinglocation of Castle Hil]. Basin. Index Map showing the drainage relationship between Castle Hill Basin and the Wairnakariri Valley. Castle Hill Basin Map - showing principal drainage and mountain ranges. Aerial view of a portion of Castle Hill Basin. Generalized Terrace Cross Section. Map showing Tasman Glacier and vicinity. Map showing course ofArizonaCreek beforeandafter capture. Cave Creek - looking downstream from Parapet Rock. Cheeseman-A and -C terraces on left. Slight remnants of Enys surface above Cheeseman-A surface, Torlesse Range in background. Cheeseman terraces along Hogeback Creek. Craigieburn Range In background. Speight's "moraine" to left of center. Craigieburn Range showing cirques at heads of Hogsback and Tim's Creek. In this area the most prominent moraines are found. Speight's "moraine at center above tree line. Note erosional and landslide features on bill. Lake Lyndon in foreground. Hill to left of center may be alluvial surface built against stagnantglacier. Moraines at head of Hogsback Creek. Talus cone near Porter River Bridge. iv F I sure l5. Natural Tunnel formed by Cave Creek near Itsjunction with Broken River. Porter River near junction with the Thomas. Broken River f1owInthrough ore In limestone below junctionwith Cave Creek.Typical ofores through- out the Basin. PatternedEroundon top of Leith Hill (4471'). Sheep trails on hill east of Hosback. V LIST OF PLATES Plate Page Terrace Profile along Cave Creek in pocket Terrace Profile along Hogsback Creek and Broken River in pocket River and Terrace Profile from Coleridge Pass to Sloven's Creek in pocket Map of Castle Hill Basin in pocket vi AC NOLEDGINT S The author is indebted tonumerous people, both in the United States and in New Zealand, who havecontributed their time to helping me complete this investigation. I am especially grateful to Dr. Maxwell G-ae, Canterbury Univer- sity, Christchurch, New Zealand, who originally suested this problem and under whose direction the field workwas completed. I am also indebted to Dr. Robin S. Allan and to Mr. J. D. Campbell, Canterbury University, and Dr. Richard P. Go].dthwaite, Ohio State University, for their many useful suestions. I also want to thank the members of the Canter- bury Winter Sports Club who generously save me permission to use their ski huts as field headquarters for this investia- tion. I would especially like to thank the members of my thesis committee at the University of Arizona, Tucson -- Dr. John F. Lance, Dr. Joseph Schreiber, and Dr. John Harshbarer for critically reading and reviewing this report. Much aid in this respect was also given by Maurice E. Cooley. Finally, I am deeply grateful to the U. S. Government for the Fuibright Grant which made my journey to New Zealand, as well as the present study possible. vii INTRODUCTION Within recent years an ever increasingunderstanding of the effects of Pleistocene1aciation has solved many problems that used to be considered too complexfor compre- hension. During this period extensive investigations in New Zealand have revealed valuable information concerning laoiation in this part of the world and alacia1 chronology has been established. In the wake of this attainment, the author has attempted to interpret the late Pleistocene history of a small intermontane basin of the Southern Alps. The field work for this study was completed during the summer (January and February) of 1958 while the author was associated with Canterbury University, Christohurch, on a Fu1briht Scholarship. Location Castle Hill Basin, in the South Island of New Zealand, is sixty miles west of Christchurch alone the main road to Arthurs Pass and the West Coast (figure 1). This area, also referred to as Trelissick Basin, is included in the western half of the Broken River Sheet (566, unpublished) 2 of the New Zealand Map Series. Roughly triangular in out- line, the basin is borderedon the south by the Red Hills and the Torlesse Range whosepeaks range up to 6500 feet high; on the west by theCraigieburn Range over7200feet; and on the northeast by theBroken Hill Range, the least imposing of the three, with its highestpeak slightly more than 5100 feet. These mountains form a barrier around the basin which is interrupted in only fourplaces: (1) by the low saddle at the head of Cave Creek Valley; (2) by Cole- ridge Pass; (3) by the low gap between Spring Creek and Lake Lyndon; and (4) by the narrowgorge through which Broken River leaves the basin and ultimately joins the Waimakariri River. Previous Work Although Haast(1879, P. 392)did extensive studies of glacial effects in other areas of Canterbury, he disre- garded Castle Hill Basin, other than to remark that the Rakaia and Waimakariri glaciers joined during their greatest extent through Lake Lyndon. McKay (1881, p. 57) was con- cerned mainly with the stratigraphy and paleontology of the area but was aware of the terraces to the extent that he postulated that Castle Hill Basin was once a lake with its origin due to ice action, Hutton (1887, p. 395) likewise studied the stratigraphy and paleontology but omitted the river gravels and terraces from consideration. He 3 considered that during the last great glacial epoch the basin was a snowfield; thus he did not expect or see any marks of glacial action. The rnoraines of the basin were first reported by Speight (1935, p. 308), but his interpretation of the gla-. cial history of the region was hindered because he did not believe that New Zealand had experienced multiple glacia- tion. This paper along with a later work on the whole Wai- makariri Valley (Speight,1938)are of more value to the present study than his earlier papers on the basin (Speight, l9l, 1917, 1919,and 1920), which were more concerned with pre-Pleistocene stratigraphy, paleontology, and tectonics. The most recent paper on the whole Waiinakariri Valley is by Gage (1958). In his paper the glacial and gla- ciofluvial deposits were studied in order to determinethe advances and retreats of the glacier. However, the evidences from Castle Hill Basin were not investigatedin detail. Purpose and Methods Since the study by Gage (1958) of latePleistocene glaciation in the Waimakariri River Valley,it has become desirable to study the river terraces andother evidences of glacial action in Castle Hill Basin. The present study was undertaken at Dr.Gage's suggestion in order to inte- grate these features more closely withthose of the 4 Waimakarirj River system. This investigationmay be useful for future work in theRakala drainage basin since Castle Hill Basin is a connectinglink between the two river systems (figure 2). In order to interpret theglacial history of Castle Hill Basin, the author madeuse of the methods already em- ployed by Gage (1958) in his studyof the Waimakariri Valley.
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