Canterbury Region, New Zealandi

Regional Level Types
Canterbury Region	Region
New Zealand	Country

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The Canterbury Region covers the central east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, at 44,508 square kilometres. Hilly to the north, and far south, while the central part of the province is flat plains. This is defined to the east by the sharply rising Southern Alps.

The region is divided into districts (Ashburton, Hurunui, Kaikoura, Mackenzie, Selwyn, Timaru, Waimakariri, Christhurch city, Waitaki and Waimate).

Christchurch has a population of 612,000 (2017) people, and is the third largest city in New Zealand, with 65% of the province's population. Other major population centres include Ashburton, Timaru, Rangiora, and Rolleston.

The plains was once tussock grass, now cleared for agriculture- cereal crops, dairying, sheep. Some viticulture occurs in the northern part of the province. Fishing, forestry, hydroelectricity also contributes to the economy.

The region is bordered to the west by the Southern Alps, uplifted relatively recently at 26 million years ago by the Alpine Fault, to the west of the Main Divide. This is a major fault, representing the border of the Pacific and Australian plates. The plains to the east were formed by erosion from the alps. Several extinct volcanic areas contributed to the landscape. The Lyttelton Harbour/Banks Peninsula area was formed by two large overlapping Miocene volcanoes. The Mount Somers/Malvern Hills area by Cretaceous volcanoes, while Pliocene aged volcanoes contributed to the landscapes around Timaru and Geraldine.

Alpine lakes in the southern part of the region were formed by glaciers.

The basement rocks across much of the region are the Torlesse Composite Terrane of sandstone and mudstone, formed in a deep marine environment. This is divided into the Raikaia Terrane, Permian to Late Triassic, north of Rangiora; and the Pahua Terrane, late Jurassic to early Cretaceous, south of Rangiora. In between is an eleven kilometre wide zone called the Esk Head Belt of broken and deformed rocks.

Little mining has taken place in the region, apart from some historic coal mining, and pottery clay in the Coalgate and Mount Somers area, inland from Christchurch. Beaches, especially Birdlings Flat may throw up pebbles of quartz, agate, jasper etc which can be tumbled. Impressive agate specimens can be found in the Mount Somers area. Some zeolites have been found from a few widely spaced areas along the edge of the Southern Alps/Canterbury Plains.

In 2010, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake was centred on Darfield 50 kilometres inland from Christchurch. In 2011, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake was centred near Lyttelton, 10 to 15 kilometres south-east of Christchurch. This earthquake caused major damage, and loss of life in Christchurch.

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded from this region.

Mineral List

Mineral list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities

85 valid minerals. 1 erroneous literature entry.

Rock Types Recorded

Rock list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities