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Abstract

J. C. Pashin and R. A. Gastaldo , eds., 2004 , Sequence stratigraphy, paleoclimate, and tectonics of coal-bearing strata : AAPG Studies in Geology 51 , p. 45 - 70 .

Copyright copy2004. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

Coal Buildup in Tide-influenced Coastal Plains in the Eocene Kapuni Group, Taranaki Basin, New Zealand

Romeo M. Flores

U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was made possible by travel financial support to R. M. Flores from the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Inc. (IGNS), Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Core work during 1992 was facilitated by John Simes of IGNS and the Ministry of Commerce, Wellington, New Zealand. The author deeply appreciates the assistance of J. M. Beggs, Greg Browne, P. R. King, and R. Sykes during this study. Special thanks goes to David Pocknall for allowing the author to stay in his home during the entire period of study. The manuscript benefited considerably from reviews by Ted Dyman (U.S. Geological Survey) and David Pocknall
(BP, Houston).

ABSTRACT

The Eocene Kapuni Group in the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand, consists of the coal-bearing Kaimiro and Mangahewa Formations. These formations contain alternating cycles of stacked, coarsening-upward, marine-shoreface mudstone, siltstone, and sandstone, or parasequence sets laterally interfingering with fluvial-tidal coal, carbonaceous shale, mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, and conglomeratic sandstone. Regional erosion surfaces, or sequence boundaries, are found between these formations and reflect drops in relative base level with the paleoshoreline regressing several tens of kilometers. The tide-influenced coastal plains were formed during the intermittent transgressions of paleoshorelines to the south and southwest of the Taranaki Basin. Coal buildup in tide-influenced coastal marshes and alluvial belt mires was controlled by third- and fourth-order fluctuations of sea level, changes in depositional environments, basin subsidence, and accommodation space. Here, coal beds are vertically stacked and thicken upward behind landward-stepping marine-shoreface sandstones or parasequence sets.

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