LATE EOCENE-OLIGOCENE TE KUITI GROUP AT MOUNT ROSKILL, AUCKLAND, NEW-ZEALAND

A 592 m deep water bore drilled at Mount Roskill in central Auckland, New Zealand, intersected products of the Auckland Volcanic Field (0-12 m), pumiceous sediments of the Tauranga Group (12-23 m), interbedded sandstone and mudstone of the Waitemata Group (23-475 m), and Te Kuiti Group sediments (475-592 m). This first record of Te Kuiti Group in t he central Auckland area comprises erosionally truncated Glen Massey F ormation beneath the Waitemata Group, a complete section through Manga kotuku Formation, and an incomplete Waikato Coal Measures section. Dri lling stopped in Waikato Coal Measures, probably less than 30 m short of Paleozoic or Mesozoic basement. Vitrinite reflectance measurements indicate a lignite rank for coal fragments collected from the coal mea sures, and suggest a maximum burial depth of c. 800 m. Six Te Kuiti Gr oup samples examined for palynomorphs and foraminifers gave ages rangi ng from Runangan to early Whaingaroan and show a transition from a pre dominantly terrestrial late Eocene environment to a shallow marine set ting in the early Oligocene. This result helps substantiate previous i nferences about the continuity of Te Kuiti Group deposition between No rthland and Waikato, and supports the suggestion that the southern lim it to the Northland Allochthon lies north of Auckland.