page_title: Dun Mountain-Maitai Terrane
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Dun Mountain-Maitai Terrane / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Maitai Group sediments folded into an isoclinal syncline.
context_page_description: The Dun Mountain-Maitai Terrane comprises the Dun Mountain Ophiolite Belt, Maitai Group and Patuki Mélange. The Dun Mountain Ophiolite is an ophiolite of Permian age located in New Zealand's South Island. Prehistorically this ophiolite was quarried by Māori for both metasomatized argillite and pounamu which was used in the production of tools and jewellery.
  In the late 1800s, the Dun Mountain Ophiolite Belt was surveyed for its economic potential. During this time the rock types dunite and rodingite were first named. Discovery of economic deposits of chromite near Nelson lead to the building of New Zealand’s first railway, however, extraction only occurred between 1862 and 1866. In the 20th century, serpentinite was mined for fertiliser and the ophiolite remains one of New Zealand's main sources of pounamu, but all other mineral exploration has failed to find economic deposits.
context_section_description: The Dun Mountain Ophiolite Belt is composed of a typical ophiolite sequence of ultramafic rocks overlain by a plutonic then volcanic sequence, and finally by conglomerates and other sedimentary rocks of the Maitai Group. The unaltered ultramafic rocks are restricted to three massifs, Dun Mountain, the Red Hills and Red Mountain, elsewhere they are highly serpentinized. This ophiolite sequence is structurally underlain by the ophiolitic Patuki Mélange. The Dun Mountain Ophiolite Belt likely formed in a forearc environment.
  Mantle lithologies
  Dun Mountain Ultramafics Group
  Wairere Serpentinite
  Upukerora Mélange
  Crustal igneous rocks
  Otanomomo Complex
  Livingstone Volcanics Group
  Crustal sedimentary rock
  Maitai Group
  Upukerora Breccia
  Wooded Peak Limestone
  Tramway Sandstone
  Greville Formation
  Little Ben Sandstone
  Stephens Subgroup
  Basal mélange
  Windon Mélange
  Paruki Mélange
caption: Maitai Group sediments folded into an isoclinal syncline
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