Thermal effects of intrusion below the Taranaki Basin (New Zealand): evidence from combined apatite fission track age and vitrinite reflectance data

A high surface heat‐flow anomaly on the northern Taranaki Peninsula in the Taranaki Basin (New Zealand) coincides spatially with Quaternary volcanic edifices, but the temporal aspects of heating of the sedimentary column associated with volcanism and any related plutonism have been unclear. A combined analysis of fission track age and vitrinite reflectance data, in particular comparing data from within the high heat‐flow anomaly to calibration wells elsewhere in the Taranaki Basin, provides important new constraints. Within the high heat‐flow region, apatite fission track (AFT) ages are older and vitrinite reflectance (Ro) values are lower than in samples from elsewhere in the basin that have undergone similar burial histories. Modelled AFT ages and Ro values suggest gradual heating to within about 20 °C of maximum temperature followed by rapid heating of sedimentary strata in the last 1 Myr, perhaps as recently as the last 0.1 Myr. The inferred age of this heating event is younger than the age of the volcanic edifice on which it is centred, suggesting that volcanism precedes heating that may be related to plutonism under the northern peninsula. These results suggest that, if the heating is caused by intrusion, then the intrusion is probably in the upper crust.