New Zealand Glaciations and the Duration of The Pleistocene

Abstract

Abstract Recent work has resulted in recognition of an additional glaciation preceding the Waimaunga Glaciation in the late Pleistocene. This followed the mid-Pleistocene climax of earth movements responsible for most of the present mountainous relief of New Zealand, but only after an interval of time long enough for the construction and subsequent deep dissection of Banks Peninsula shield volcano. It is inferred from this and other geological evidence that the earliest late Pleistocene glaciation was separated from the early Pleistocene Ross Glaciation by several hundred thousand years, and that the Pleistocene Period altogether covers at least one million years.