3D Seismic Studies of Igneous Intrusions, Taranaki Basin, off-shore west New Zealand

Several off-shore volcano-plutonic complexes are imaged in a detailed 3D seismic survey acquired by Pogo New Zealand/Plains Exploration. The new data provide insight into the sizes, shapes, and wall rock deformation associated with the emplacement of plutons. The seismic survey, conducted in 2005, covers 1700 km2 and was processed with modern techniques used in hydrocarbon exploration. The images and structures have to be interpreted with care because of distortions caused by "velocity pull ups" created by the large seismic wave velocity contrast between sediment and igneous rock. The magmatic rocks may be part of the Mohakatino Volcanic Centre (15 to 1.5 Ma) that intrudes and partially fills the Taranaki graben, which began to form in the Cretaceous. Imaged plutons range from less than 1 to as much as 12 km across. The intrusions are steep-sided and do not resemble sills, but their bases are poorly resolved. The top of the largest complex is sharply delineated and marked by multiple apophyses as much as 2 km across and hundreds of meters high. Deformation along the sides of the intrusion is dominated by of a faulted rim anticline, with apparent dips of 45° or higher. Dips decrease rapidly away from the intrusion but doming extends several hundred meters from the margins. A series of high-angle faults fan out from the margin of the pluton and cut the folded strata along the margin. These faults terminate against the margins of the intrusion, extend as much as 1 pluton diameter away from the margin, and then merge with "regional" faults that are part of the Taranaki graben. Offset along these radiating faults is on the order of a few hundred meters. Strata on the top of the complex are thinned but are deformed into a faulted dome with an amplitude of about 1 km. Steep, dip-slip faults form a semi-radial pattern in the roof rocks but are strongly controlled by the regional stress field as many of the faults are sub-parallel to those that form the graben. The longest roof faults are about the same length as the diameter of the pluton and cut through approximately 1 km of overlying strata, but offset gradually diminishes vertically away from the top of the intrusion. The pluton appears to be composite and formed from multiple, steep-sided intrusions as evidenced by the complex margins and roof. Multiple episodes of deformation are also indicated by a series of unconformities around the complex. The intrusion lies in a relay zone between two NE-trending faults. En echelon fault patterns and flower structures suggest that oblique-slip movement has occurred and space for the intrusion may have been created by transtensional opening along the fault system.