286 



Transactions. 



Art. XL. — Preliminary Note on the Uplifted East Coast of Marlborough. 



By C. A. Cotton, M.Sc, Victoria College, Wellington. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 22nd October, 1913.] 



Plate XL 



Introduction and General Statement. 



The previous record of uplifts along the coast of Marlborough and its 

 continuation towards Canterbury is limited, so far as the Writer is aware, 

 to the mention by Hutton* and McKay}" of raised shore-terraces at a few 

 points on the coast, and the description of cut platforms northward of the 

 mouth of the Waipara Eiver by Speight .J 



There are three cut platforms on Kaikoura Peninsula, the highest of 

 which forms the flat top of the peninsula at a height of 330 ft., and there is 

 a small remnant near Cape Campbell. In comparison with other evidence, 

 that afforded by raised shore-lines is, however, remarkably slight for the 



greater part of the length of the coast 

 of Marlborough. 



In Marlborough there are also other 

 unequivocal proofs of uplift of two 

 kinds — namely, (1) rejuvenation of 

 topography, and (2) the presence of 

 an uplifted delta. Notes on these are 

 presented in this paper, and also on 

 (3) residuals of a slightly elevated 

 wave-cut platform near Flaxbourne 

 that have previously escaped notice, 

 and (4) a long strip of strand-plain 

 of recent origin which points also to 

 uplift as its probable cause. 



No pretence of completeness of 

 treatment can be made, as the writer's 

 observations, though spread over a 

 considerable period, were made during 

 the course of other work; and no 

 conclusion can at present be arrived at 

 on the important questions whether 

 the uplift has been uniform throughout 

 the region examined or is of the nature 

 of warping, whether it is entirely 

 distinct from, or a posthumous con- 

 tinuation of, the orogenic movements 

 by which the Kaikoura Ranges were 

 formed, § and what is the relation of 

 the uplifted area to the neighbouring 

 downthrown areas — namely, those lying off the east coast and in Cook 

 Strait, and also the Marlborough Sounds district. 



* F. W. Hutton, Geol. Surv. of N.Z., Rep. Geol. Expl. during 1873-74 (1877), p. 55. 



t A. McKay, ibid., 1874-76 (1877), p. 177. 



t R. Speight, Trans. N.Z. Inst, vol. 44 (1912), pp. 223-24. 



§See C A. Cotton, Geogr. Journ., vol. 42 (1913), p. 227. 



Fig. 1. 



-Locality Mai> of Eastern 

 Marlborough. 



