Foveaux formation: a warm-water, strandline deposit of Landon-Pareora age at Bluff Hill, Southland, New Zealand (Note)

Exposures of Foveaux Formation (new) consist of a remnant of a deposit that accumulated at the foot of a sea cliff cut in Bluff Gabbronorite in Late Oligocene - Early Miocene time. Rounded boulders of gabbro, up to 2 m in diameter, are embedded in a matrix containing a varied rockyshore fauna including brachiopods and foraminifera. The cement consists of calcite, clay minerals, and abundant zeolites including thomsonite, gonnardite, and chabazite. Sphaerogypsina sp. and Amphistegina cf.aucklandica (Karrer) suggest tropical to subtropical water temperatures.