Cretaceous beds at Coal Creek, Rangitata Valley

Abstract The Tertiary sequence in Coal Creek reported by Mason (1948) was recently re‐examined and a thick greywacke conglomerate, not recorded by Mason, was found to form the apparent base of the sequence (Fig. 2 a ). The conglomerate is over 300 ft thick, consists predominantly of well rounded but poorly sorted, pale‐green leached greywacke pebbles commonly ½ to 1 in. across, and contains several thin beds of fine sandstone and dark‐grey carbonaceous siltstone up to 1 ft thick that yielded microfloras of late Cretaceous age (samples, S91/523, L2877; S91/524, L2878). Mr D. J. McIntyre, N.Z. Geological Survey (pers. comm.), places the age as probably Mata Series and definitely not older than Raukumara Series or younger than Mata Series.