Paleopedology and soil stratigraphy in the New Zealand Quaternary succession

Abstract

Information, presented in other papers on the pedological implications of the Quaternary succession is summarised, correlated and interpreted. Such paleo-pedological evidence may be employed to confirm and extend the chronology of the later part of the New Zealand Quaternary. A soil stratigraphic terminology is proposed for New Zealand conditions, and it is applied to paleosols in some North and South Island loess deposits. Paleosols in North Island tephra deposits do not have the same time-stratigraphic significance and it is suggested that they be referred to less formally. However, they are of considerable value in the identification and dating of related climatically controlled events such as erosion and loess deposition and examples are quoted from the Central North Island.

Soil-stratigraphic units from Southland, Otago and the Rangitikei Basin are formally named and defined in Appendices.