Wanted: Oscar Obsidian - Auckland Museum

NEW ZEALAND'S GEOLOGICAL ORIGINS
Eighty five million years ago, New Zealand began
to break away from the supercontinent called
Gondwana where it had been united with all the
other countries in the southern hemisphere. As
New Zealand drifted away from Australia taking
with it animals (including dinosaurs) and plants
that lived on it, the opening between them began
to form the Tasman Sea.
Gondwana.
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Timeline.
Remnants of Gondwana in New Zealand
Rocks and fossils provide links to our past connection
with other countries. Most of the rock types in
the Southwest corner of the South Island match up
with rocks in south east Australia and Antarctica.
Fossil ferns found in rocks near Port Waikato grew
in coastal Gondwana forest 140 million years
ago. Fossils of the seed fern Glossopteris have
been found in New Zealand, Australia, Antarctica,
South America and India.
In the 60 million years since the Tasman
Sea finished opening, erosion, tectonic
processes and climate change have
drastically altered the shape of New
Zealand. These changes have had a
huge impact on our plants and animals.
New Zealand drifted north away from
Antarctica as a heavily eroded lowland
plain. As it moved, Earth's crust
stretched and thinned and the land
sank. From considerable continental
beginnings, New Zealand became an
archipelago of small swampy low-lying
islands.
Auckland Museum
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