Distribution of surficial sediments in the ocean around New Zealand/Aotearoa. Part A: continental slope and deep ocean

Figures & data

Figure 1. (A) Bathymetric map of the New Zealand region. The isobaths are at 150 m, 500 m, 1,000 m, 2,000 m, 3,000 m and 4,000 m. The main bathymetric features mentioned in the text are labelled. Abbreviated locations are: C Is. – Campbell Island/Motu Ihupuku, B Is. – Bounty Islands, A Is. – Auckland Islands, Ch Is. – Chatham Island, An Is. – Antipodes Islands, M Is. – Macquarie Island, CS – Cristable Seamount, BS – Bollons Seamount, HC – Hokitika Canyon, PT – Puysegur Trench, OC – Otago Canyons, MS – Mernoo Saddle, TVZ – Taupo Volcanic Zone, STF – Subtropical Front, ACC – Antarctic Circumpolar Current, DWBC – Deep Western Boundary Current. The area shaded in orange (depths >4000 m) is the below the CCD (carbonate compensation depth; Bostock et al., 2011). (B) Location of all the stations used in this study, within and just beyond the New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and outer limit of the Extended Continental Shelf (OLECS).

Figure 2. Location of previous sediment maps for the New Zealand region (Table 1).

Table 1. Published sediment charts of New Zealand (see Figure 2 for the locations of these charts).

No. on Figure 2	Region	Scale	Reference
1	Foveaux	1:200,000	Cullen and Gibb (1965)
2	Mahia		Pantin and Gibb (1968)
3	Turnagain		Lewis and Gibb (1970)
4	Poor Knights		Eade (1974)
5	Bay of Plenty		Doyle et al. (1979)
6	Banks		Herzer (1979b)
7	Raglan		Doyle and Arron (1982)
8	Hauraki		Carter and Eade (1980)
9	Cook Strait		Lewis and Mitchell (1980)
10	Ellesmere		Herzer (1981)
11	Mokau		Arron and Doyle (1983)
12	Oamaru		Arron (1986)
13	Pegasus		Carter and Herzer (1986)
14	Tasman		Mitchell (1987)
15	Patea		Nodder et al. (1992)
16	Cook	1: 1,000,000	McDougall (1975)
17	Three Kings		McDougall (1979)
18	Bounty		McDougall (1982)
19	New Zealand	1: 6,000,000	Mitchell et al. (1989)

Several additional charts were also made for harbours e.g. Wellington Harbour.

Figure 3. (A) Mud % interpolated across the EEZ and OLECS of New Zealand. (B) Sand %, (C) Gravel %, (D) Carbonate %. Using Kriging method in ArcGIS with a maximum range of 100 km. We have used the dbSEABED colour legends for the representation of the different sediment properties (http://instaar.colorado.edu/~jenkinsc/dbseabed/helpful/index.html).

Figure 4. The main sedimentary regions and their predominant sediment types and influences (see Table 2 for more details).

Table 2. Characterisation of the continental slope and basins around New Zealand.

	Region	Dominant sediment	Terrigenous influx	Oceanographic Regime	Tectonic/Volcanic influences
3.1	Tasman Basin
a	Challenger Plateau	Pelagic ooze and sands	Very low	Low	Low
b	Southern Challenger Plateau	Hemipelagic	Moderate	Low	Moderate – Tectonic
c	Offshore Fiordland	Relict gravels	Low	Low	High – Tectonic
d	Tasman Abyssal Plain	Terrigenous mud	Low	Low	Low
3.2	Northern New Zealand
a	Three Kings Ridge	Biogenic gravel	Low	Low	Low
b	South Fiji Basin	Pelagic ooze, mud at depth	Low	Low	Low
c	Colville and Kermadec Ridges	Volcanic gravel and mud, polymetallic crusts	Low	Low	High – Volcanic
3.3	East Coast NI
a	Hikurangi Plateau	Terrigenous mud	High	Moderate DWBC	High – Tectonic (actively transferring sediment offshore)
b	Southwest Pacific abyssal plain	Terrigenous mud, polymetallic nodules	Low	Low	Low
3.4	Chatham Rise	Relict, polymetallic nodules and authigenic sediments, pelagic ooze	Low	Strong surface and mid depth currents	Low
3.5	Bounty Trough	Hemipelagic – more pelagic ooze than terrigenous mud	Low	Moderate currents at mid depths and DWBC at the deep fan	Low
3.6	Campbell and Bounty Plateaux
a	Plateaux	Pelagic ooze, sands, relict	Very low	Low on the central plateaux, strong around the edges and through Pūkākī Saddle	Low
b	Subantarctic slope	Sand, gravel and polymetallic nodules	Low – some transported in DWBC	Strong DWBC along the edge and base of the slope
c	Southwest Pacific abyssal Plain	Mud and polymetallic nodules	Low	Low
3.7	Macquarie Ridge
a	Ridge	Volcanic rocks and biogenic shells	Very low	Strong currents through the gaps	High – Tectonic
b	Solander Trough	Hemipelagic	Low	High in the southern trough – ACC	Low

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McDougall JC. 1982. Bounty oceanic sediments chart (1:1,000,000). Wellington, New Zealand: New Zealand Oceanographic Institute (now NIWA), Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

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