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This research involves multidisciplinary teams of field geologists, stratigraphers, paleontologists, sedimentologists, geochemists and geophysicists. These scientists use features of the earth's surface and subsurface, and especially the geological record of strata and fossils in three key tasks: Dating rocks, understanding ancient environments, and deducing New Zealand's origin and evolution. The present geological structure of New Zealand, as depicted by geological maps, and its geography and biota are the results of complex changes over hundreds of millions of years at local, regional and global levels. For this reason, our research focus extends beyond New Zealand to the Southwest Pacific, including Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Such research has long-term social and economic benefit
for New Zealanders. It is closely tied to the exploration and safe
management of energy and water resources, as well as issues of present-day
global environmental change.
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GNS
research on the geological history of New Zealand has two central
aims: to understand the origins and evolution of the New Zealand
landmass and its unique flora and fauna, and to contribute a southern
Pacific perspective to the understanding of global change through
geological time.