GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND
             The New Zealand landmass, (which includes the north island, the south island, and the other outer lying islands) is part of a larger submerged micro-continent that was initially formed on the eastern boundary of the Gondwanaland super-continent. New Zealand separated from Gondwanaland during the Cretaceous period, approximately 130 million years ago. 600 million years ago New Zealand did not exist. Over time however, tectonic and volcanic processes that caused uplift and erosion, has turned New Zealand into the New Zealand we know today. Its location on the mobile margin of the Pacific Ocean has lead to a complex geological history of disturbed tectonic activity from the Cambrian era to the present day.
             During the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras New Zealand was off the eastern coast of Gondwanaland, where Australia and Antarctica were located. The submerged New Zealand started to then gradually fill up with sediments that had eroded from these continents. The sediments were now building up and forming rocks, which in the early years of New Zealand were mainly Trilobite rocks. The Trilobites found in these rocks are the oldest fossils found in New Zealand and have been dated back 500 million year. While New Zealand was forming, it began to drift away from the super-continent of Gondwanaland. New Zealand drifted into the southern hemisphere 400 million years ago. The land was being lifted, forming the granite rocks at the base of the Southern Alps. New Zealand was drifting even further south and still filling with sediments during the Triassic and Jurassic periods.
             As the Cretaceous period came about, there was a sudden cooling event, and widespread flooding by sea occurred. 125 million years ago the continent of Africa left Antarctica. India separated from Australia and Antarctica moving north at 20cm a year. New Zealand finally separated from Australia 80 million years ago. All of
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