TAITAI SERIES

lowermost major division of Cretaceous rocks and time in New Zealand (144 to 66.4 million years ago). The Taitai Series underlies rocks of the Clarence Series. The rocks of the Taitai Series consist largely of mudstones, conglomerates, and graywackes that were rapidly deposited in the East Coast Geosyncline (downward flexure of the Earth's crust) of New Zealand, a slowly subsiding trough that extended along the islands' northeastern region during the Cretaceous Period. The Taitai Series has been divided into two stages, smaller divisions of rocks and time: the earliest is the Mokoiwian, which consists largely of shales; overlying the Mokoiwian is Korangan, which consists of graywackes.