|
Norfolk Ridge
The Norfolk Ridge (Norfolk Island Ridge, Norfolk Rise, South New Caledonia Ridge) is a long submarine ridge running between New Caledonia and New Zealand, about off the east-coast of Australia. It is part of a complex region of ridges between the oceanic crust of the Pacific plate and the continental crust of Australia. Little has been known about the Norfolk Ridge; however, it generally lies about below sea level and consists of Late Cretaceous continental crust. It is part of Zealandia, a continent that was submerged 60-85 million years ago. Geography The Norfolk Ridge is about long and is up to wide. It is between the New Caledonia Trough and Norfolk Basin which has central and southern parts. The Norfolk Ridge emerges above the sea surface at Grande Terre of New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, and part of the northern North Island of New Zealand. At about 31°S proceeding towards New Zealand, the ridge widens and splits into the Reinga Ridge and West Norfolk Ridge, whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grande Terre (New Caledonia)
Grande Terre () is the largest and principal island of New Caledonia, which is a territory of France. History Until about 37 million years ago, the island was completely submerged under the ocean. British explorer James Cook sighted Grande Terre in 1774 and named it "New Caledonia", Caledonia being the Latin name for what is now Scotland. The island's mountains reminded him of Scotland. Eventually, the name "New Caledonia" became applied to Grande Terre and its surrounding islands. It was annexed by the French Empire and became a penal colony in 1853. Today, Grande Terre has about 268,000 residents. Geography The largest settlement on Grande Terre is Nouméa, the capital city of New Caledonia. Locals refer to Grande Terre as "Le Caillou", the pebble. The island has a fairly hot and humid climate, though varying as the south-east trade winds bring relatively cool air. Surrounding the island and especially to the north-west is the New Caledonian barrier reef. The island is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the Latin word for the white limestone known as chalk. The chalk of northern France and the white cliffs of south-eastern England date from the Cretaceous Period. Climate During the Late Cretaceous, the climate was warmer than present, although throughout the period a cooling trend is evident. The tropics became restricted to equatorial regions and northern latitudes experienced markedly more seasonal climatic conditions. Geography Due to plate tectonics, the Americas were gradually moving westward, causing the Atlantic Ocean to expand. The Western Interior Seaway divided North America into eastern and western halves; Appalachia and Laramidia. India maintained a northward course towards Asia. In the Southern Hemisphere, Aus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allochthon
upright=1.6, Schematic overview of a thrust system. The hanging wall block is (when it has reasonable proportions) called a window. A klippe is a solitary outcrop of the nappe in the middle of autochthonous material. An allochthon, or an allochthonous block, is a large block of rock which has been moved from its original site of formation, usually by low angle thrust faulting. The term is derived from Greek: ''allo'', meaning other, and ''chthon'', meaning earth. For other possible mechanisms see obduction. An allochthon which is isolated from the rock that pushed it into position is called a klippe. If an allochthon has a "hole" in it so that one can view the autochthon beneath the allochthon, the hole is called a "window" (or fenster). In generalized terms, the term is applied to any geologic units that originated at a distance from their present location. In the United States there are three notable allochthons, all of which were displaced nearly 50 km (31 miles) along ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terrane
In geology, a terrane (; in full, a tectonostratigraphic terrane) is a crust fragment formed on a tectonic plate (or broken off from it) and accreted or " sutured" to crust lying on another plate. The crustal block or fragment preserves its distinctive geologic history, which is different from the surrounding areas—hence the term "exotic" terrane. The suture zone between a terrane and the crust it attaches to is usually identifiable as a fault. A sedimentary deposit that buries the contact of the terrane with adjacent rock is called an overlap formation. An igneous intrusion that has intruded and obscured the contact of a terrane with adjacent rock is called a stitching pluton. There is also an older usage of the term ''terrane'', which described a series of related rock formations or an area with a preponderance of a particular rock or rock group. Overview A tectonostratigraphic terrane did not necessarily originate as an independent microplate, since it may not contain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the epoch are slightly uncertain. The name Oligocene was coined in 1854 by the German paleontologist Heinrich Ernst Beyrich from his studies of marine beds in Belgium and Germany. The name comes from Ancient Greek (''olígos'') 'few' and (''kainós'') 'new', and refers to the sparsity of Neontology, extant forms of Mollusca, molluscs. The Oligocene is preceded by the Eocene Epoch and is followed by the Miocene Epoch. The Oligocene is the third and final epoch of the Paleogene Period. The Oligocene is often considered an important time of transition, a link between the archaic world of the tropical Eocene and the more modern ecosystems of the Miocene. Major chang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cenozoic
The Cenozoic Era ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterized by the dominance of mammals, insects, birds and angiosperms (flowering plants). It is the latest of three geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon, preceded by the Mesozoic and Paleozoic. The Cenozoic started with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, when many species, including the non-avian dinosaurs, became extinct in an event attributed by most experts to the impact of a large asteroid or other celestial body, the Chicxulub impactor. The Cenozoic is also known as the Age of Mammals because the terrestrial animals that dominated both hemispheres were mammalsthe eutherians ( placentals) in the Northern Hemisphere and the metatherians (marsupials, now mainly restricted to Australia and to some extent South America) in the Southern Hemisphere. The extinction of many groups allowed mammals and birds to greatly diversify so that large m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian reptiles such as the dinosaurs, and of Gymnosperm, gymnosperms such as cycads, ginkgoaceae and Araucariaceae, araucarian conifers; a hot Greenhouse and icehouse earth, greenhouse climate; and the tectonic break-up of Pangaea. The Mesozoic is the middle of the three eras since Cambrian explosion, complex life evolved: the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Cenozoic. The era began in the wake of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the largest mass extinction in Earth's history, and ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, another mass extinction whose victims included the non-avian dinosaurs, Pterosaur, pterosaurs, Mosasaur, mosasaurs, and Plesiosaur, plesiosaurs. The Mesozoic was a time of significant tectonic, climatic, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Depocenter
A depocenter or depocentre in geology is the part of a sedimentary basin where a particular rock unit has its maximum thickness. Depending on the controls on subsidence and the sedimentary environment, the location of a basin's depocenter may vary with time, such as in active rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-graben ... basins as extensional faults grow, link or become abandoned. References {{geology-stub Geology terminology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Island
The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List of islands by area, world's 14th-largest island, constituting 43% of New Zealand's land area. It has a population of which is % of New Zealand's residents, making it the most populous island in Polynesia and the List of islands by population, 28th-most-populous island in the world. Twelve main urban areas (half of them officially cities) are in the North Island. From north to south, they are Whangārei, Auckland, Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Gisborne, New Zealand, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Napier, New Zealand, Napier, Hastings, New Zealand, Hastings, Whanganui, Palmerston North, and New Zealand's capital city Wellington, which is located at the south-west tip of the island. Naming and usage The island has been known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norfolk Basin (Oceania)
The Norfolk Basin, which has been subdivided into the North Norfolk Basin and South Norfolk Basin, is an ocean floor sedimentary basin between the Norfolk Ridge to the east and the Three Kings Ridge to the west, on the edge of the submerged continent of Zealandia. The northern boundary is the Cook fracture zone and the southern is the Regina ridge projecting from Northland Peninsula, New Zealand. While it has back-arc basin characteristics its formation and structure are not able to be explained by historic back-arc basin theory. Geography The basin is wide by long between the above sea features of the south of the island of Grande Terre of New Caledonia, and the northern tip of the North Island of New Zealand. The basin depth is between although seamount features are less. While the deeper South Norfolk Basin has a relatively simple basin bathymetry, the northern basin has much more complex bathymetry and contains several named features. For the purposes of this article, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Caledonia Trough
The New Caledonia Trough is an ocean floor feature that extends from the north of the island of Grande Terre (New Caledonia), Grande Terre of New Caledonia, to the coast off the Taranaki region of the North Island of New Zealand. Its southern portion includes the Taranaki Basin which has demonstrated oil reserves. Geography The Trough (geology), trough is long and at ocean depths between orientated initially under the southern Coral Sea northeast to southwest similar to the alignment of Grande Terre but at the southern end of Grande Terre strikes north–south. At about 33°S the strike turns south-west towards northern Taranaki. These have been termed the northern (18–23°S), central (23–33°S) and southern (33–37°S) sectors. The northern and central portions are often termed the New Caledonia Basin. It extends from to A clear distinction between the trough and its constituent basins was only defined in 2012. The eastern boundary of the northern sector is the Fairwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
