MIDDLE-LATE PLEISTOCENE TEPHROSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE EASTERN BAY-OF-PLENTY, NEW-ZEALAND

Up to fifty tephras, ranging in age from ca. 500 to 50 ka, are recorde d in a terrestrial sequence of loess and paleosols in the eastern Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand. Tephra correlations are based on the distinctive physical characteristics of the airfall beds and conf irmed by microprobe analysis of glass shards. The deposits are divided into six subgroups with their boundaries marked by either major tephr as or significant changes in the paleo-climate indicator deposits such as loess and paleosols. Age control on these tephras has been provide d by fitting the paleoclimatic data seen in the field to the SPECMAP o xygen isotope curve, with correlations to a few well dated tephras and ignimbrites providing key time planes within this record. Copyright ( C) 1996 INQUA/Elsevier Science Ltd