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The formation and preservation of cratons -the oldest parts of the continents comprising over 60% of the continental landmass -remains an enduring problem. Keyto craton development is how and when the thick strong mantle roots that underlie these regions formed and evolved. Peridotite melting residues forming cratonic lithospheric roots mostly originated via relatively low-pressure melting and were subsequently transported to greater depth by thickening produced by lateral accretion and compression. The longest-lived cratons assembled during Mesoarchean and Paleoproterozoic times, creating the 150 to 250 km thick, stable mantle roots that are critical to preserving Earth's early continents and central to defining the cratons although we extend the definition of cratons to include extensive regions of long-stable Mesoproterzoic crust also underpinned by thick lithospheric roots. The production of widespread thick and strong lithosphere via the process of orogenic thickening, possibly in several cycles, was fundamental to the eventual emergence of extensive continental landmasses -the cratons.

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There has been long debate on the asthenospheric versus lithospheric source for numerous intraplate basalts with ocean island basalt (OIB) and high time-integrated U/Pb (HIMU)-like source signatures that have erupted through the Zealandia continental crust. Analysis of 157 spinel facies peridotitic mantle xenoliths from 25 localities across Zealandia permits the first comprehensive regional description of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) and insights into whether it could be a source to the intraplate basalts. Contrary to previous assumptions, the Oligocene-Miocene Zealandia SCLM is highly heterogeneous. It is composed of a refractory craton-like domain (West Otago) adjacent to several moderately fertile domains (East Otago, North Otago, Auckland Islands). Each domain has an early history decoupled from the overlying Carboniferous and younger continental crust, and each domain has undergone varying degrees of depletion followed by enrichment. Clinopyroxene grains reveal trace element characteristics (low Ti/Eu, high Th/U) consistent with enrichment through reaction with carbonatite. This metasomatic overprint has a composition that closely matches HIMU in Sr, Pb 6 Nd isotopes. However, clinopyroxene Hf isotopes are in part highly radiogenic and decoupled from the other isotope systems, and also mostly more radiogenic than the intraplate basalts. If the studied spinel facies xenoliths are representative of the thin Zealandia SCLM, the melting of garnet facies lithosphere could only be the intraplate basalt source if it had a less radiogenic Hf-Nd isotope composition than the investigated spinel facies, or was mixed with asthenosphere-derived melts containing less radiogenic Hf.

This paper provides a comprehensive description of all major plutonic rock units in Fiordland between Lakes Poteriteri and Te Anau, and the heads of Doubtful and George Sounds. Plutonic rocks comprise c. 80% of the basement in the area described, the remainder being metase dim entary and metavolcaniclastic rocks. The plutonic rocks, of which c. 50% are granitoids, were emplaced in three phases-at c. 492 Ma, between c. 365 and 318 Ma, and between 168 and 116 Ma. Correlatives of the Devonian Karamea Suite emplaced between c. 375 and 367 Ma, and the Triassic to Early Jurassic part of the Darran Suite emplaced between c. 230 and 168 Ma, are not present in the area described here.