Geology of the Permian Kuriwao Group, Murihiku Terrane, Southland, New Zealand

Kuriwao Group rocks form a small inlier (5×2 km) of calcareous and volcaniclastic Permian rocks in Southland, surrounded by Triassic and Jurassic Murihiku Supergroup. Previously reported Kuriwao Group field relationships, macrofauna, leaf fossils, and palynoflora have been re-examined and interpretations are made of these and new data. A Late Permian age for sandstones and limestones of the Kuriwao Group is confirmed and no evidence is found that the limestones are olistoliths. Field relationships and palynological data suggest that Early-Middle Triassic Wairuna Peak Group (Murihiku Supergroup) strata lie in conformable sedimentary contact on the Kuriwao Group. The petrological composition of Kuriwao Group sandstones closely resembles quartz-poor sandstones in overlying Wairuna Peak Group and differs from broadly coeval Permian sandstones in the Brook Street and Maitai Terranes. Kuriwao Group should be regarded as part of the Murihiku tectonostratigraphic terrane. With the age of Murihiku Terrane extending back into the Permian, some 120 m.y. of geological history are represented in an aggregate thickness of c. 16 km of little-deformed strata, although not in any one section. Permian rocks are now known from seven New Zealand terranes.