Download Student tasksheet tectonic processes Kaikoura

Tectonic processes
1. Use the keywords from the box below to help you complete the
following summary.
Kaikoura Mountains (
) has been
as a result of
uplift along the boundary of the Australian and Pacific Plates. The mountains are
relatively young, actively uplifted mountains composed of
that is often
jointed, shattered and easily eroded by mass-wasting, frost action,
, gravity,
and running water. (all influenced by climatic processes too).
The land of the peninsula was once the sea floor; that was many millions of years ago.
Uplifted high, the land continues to rise – the peninsula by about_________________ per
year and the Kaikoura Ranges by
per year. The meeting of two of the Earth’s
great crustal plates causes the mountains of the land to
while ‘next door’, out
at sea, it causes the deep furrow of the
Trough to form.
Kaikoura Peninsula was once an
– hundreds and thousands of years ago.
Over time, river gravels eroded from the Kaikoura Ranges and filled the
sea
that washed between the island and the mainland.
Before the peninsula was an island, it was a sea floor. But so was much of New Zealand
then, millions of years ago.
Around
million years ago, under the enormous pressure of the sea,
________________ and
started to be compacted into layers on the sea
floor. Then, around
million years ago, massive earth movements folded and twisted
the layers, then started shunting them skywards, up out of the sea.
Over the past
years, wave action has cut the land into platforms, during
times of relative stability, before uplift has occurred again. The top of today’s peninsula
is the oldest wave-cut platform. Here you will find beach gravels that are identical to the
shoreline. The peninsula’s newest platform is at
level. The peninsula continues to
rise today. Plate boundaries and active faultlines make this area of New Zealand, both on
land and under the sea a geologically dynamic place. The peninsula is currently rising at
the rate of about
every year.
sea, 3mm, greywacke, 100, Hikurangi, shallow, 125,000, tectonic, island, siltstone,
10mm, freeze-thaw, folded, limestone, build, 15, Seaward Kaikoura Range,