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Mount Arthur (New Zealand)
Mount Arthur (''Tuao Wharepapa'' in Māori) is in the Wharepapa / Arthur Range in the north western area of the South Island of New Zealand. Mount Arthur, named after Captain Arthur Wakefield, lies within Kahurangi National Park and has a peak elevation of . Geology Mt Arthur is made of hard, crystalline marble, transformed (hardened) from limestone, originally laid down under the sea some 450 million years ago in the Ordovician. The "Arthur Marble" is part of the Takaka Terrane which was part of Gondwana and is similar to rocks in modern-day south-east Australia. Below ground are some of the deepest shafts and most intricate cave systems in the country, and exploration of these is far from finished."Cobb Valley, Mt Arthur, Tableland" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wharepapa / Arthur Range
The Wharepapa / Arthur Range is a mountain range partially marking the boundary between the Tasman District and West Coast Region of New Zealand's South Island. The range is at the eastern extent of the Tasman Mountains which make up much of the island's northwest, making it easily visible from across the low-lying Waimea Plains further to the east. The range's location and its many uses make it a significant site for local Māori, including the iwi of Te Ātiawa and Ngāti Rārua. This includes the prominent peaks of Mount Arthur and Pukeone / Mount Campbell, which both hold mana in their own right and have become part of the identity of the aforementioned iwi. The mountains of Wharepapa / Arthur Range have a complex geological history, with most of their rocks dating to the Ordovician and having been transformed several times before being uplifted to their current position. The range is also notable for the vast networks of caves beneath its surface, including several of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Takaka Terrane
The Takaka Terrane is a Paleozoic terrane that outcrops in the South Island of New Zealand. It is most extensively exposed within the Kahurangi National Park in the Tasman District. The terrane is mostly made up of marble and volcanic rocks but is highly variable in composition. It ranges in age from mid-Cambrian to Devonian time (510–400 Ma), including New Zealand's oldest rocks, which are found in the Cobb Valley in north-west Nelson. The Cobb Valley is also the location of "Trilobite Rock" a glacial dropstone made from the moulted exoskeletons of trilobites. Asbestos was mined in the Cobb Valley from the Takaka Terrene between the late 1880s and 1917. The Takaka Terrane is highly deformed and has been intruded by many batholiths. Description The Takaka Terrane has two main igneous units, the arc-related Devil River Volcanics Group ( Middle to Late Cambrian) and the rift‐related Gendarme Dolerite (latest Cambrian to Early Ordovician age). The Devil River Volcanics Grou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinkhole
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openings where surface water enters into underground passages known as ''ponor'', swallow hole or swallet. A ''cenote'' is a type of sinkhole that exposes groundwater underneath. A ''sink'' or ''stream sink'' are more general terms for sites that drain surface water, possibly by infiltration into sediment or crumbled rock. Most sinkholes are caused by karst processes – the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks, collapse or suffosion processes. Sinkholes are usually circular and vary in size from tens to hundreds of meters both in diameter and depth, and vary in form from soil-lined bowls to bedrock-edged chasms. Sinkholes may form gradually or suddenly, and are found worldwide. Formation Natural processes Sinkholes may capture surf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cirque
A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform arising from fluvial erosion. The concave shape of a glacial cirque is open on the downhill side, while the cupped section is generally steep. Cliff-like slopes, down which ice and glaciated debris combine and converge, form the three or more higher sides. The floor of the cirque ends up bowl-shaped, as it is the complex convergence zone of combining ice flows from multiple directions and their accompanying rock burdens. Hence, it experiences somewhat greater erosion forces and is most often overdeepened below the level of the cirque's low-side outlet (stage) and its down-slope (backstage) valley. If the cirque is subject to seasonal melting, the floor of the cirque most often forms a tarn (small lake) behind a dam, which marks the down ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nettlebed Cave
__NOTOC__ Nettlebed Cave is a limestone cave located in the Mount Arthur region of the northwest South Island of New Zealand. The presence of ongaonga (''Urtica ferox''), an endemic tree nettle, near the bottom entrance gives the cave its name. Until April 2010, when the nearby Ellis Basin cave system was found to be deeper, Nettlebed Cave was thought to be the deepest cave system in the southern hemisphere. It drops below its upper entrance (Blizzard Pot) to its lower exit (the Pearse River resurgence), and its of cave passages make it New Zealand's third-longest cave. In January 2014 a group of cavers established that the Nettlebed Cave was connected to the Stormy Pot Cave. Exploration Nettlebed Cave was first explored by cavers in 1969 through the dry overflow passage of a large spring pouring into the Pearse River. By 1973 of passages had been mapped. It was not until 1979 that a flowstone Flowstones are sheetlike deposits of calcite or other carbonate minerals, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ellis Basin Cave System
The Ellis Basin cave system is a group of interconnecting limestone caves located in the Mount Arthur region of the northwest South Island of New Zealand. In April 2010, the cave system was found to be deeper than the nearby Nettlebed Cave, making it the deepest known cave in New Zealand. It has been explored to a depth of 1,024 metres, and its 33.4 kilometres of cave passages make it New Zealand's second longest. The Ellis Basin cave system was first explored by caver Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology is ...s in the 1960s. References External linksCaving areas in New Zealand Caves of the Tasman District {{tasman-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea caves, rock shelters, and grottos, that extend a relatively short distance into the rock and they are called ''exogene'' caves. Caves which extend further underground than the opening is wide are called ''endogene'' caves. Speleology is the science of exploration and study of all aspects of caves and the cave environment. Visiting or exploring caves for recreation may be called ''caving'', ''potholing'', or ''spelunking''. Formation types The formation and development of caves is known as ''speleogenesis''; it can occur over the course of millions of years. Caves can range widely in size, and are formed by various geological processes. These may involve a combination of chemical processes, erosion by water, tectonic forces, microorgani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gondwana
Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages of break-up, involving the separation of Antarctica from South America (forming the Drake Passage) and Australia, occurred during the Paleogene. Gondwana was not considered a supercontinent by the earliest definition, since the landmasses of Baltica, Laurentia, and Siberia were separated from it. To differentiate it from the Indian region of the same name (see ), it is also commonly called Gondwanaland. Gondwana was formed by the accretion of several cratons. Eventually, Gondwana became the largest piece of continental crust of the Palaeozoic Era, covering an area of about , about one-fifth of the Earth's surface. During the Carboniferous Period, it merged with Laurasia to form a larger supercontinent called Pangaea. Gondwana (and Pan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ordovician
The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. The Ordovician, named after the Celtic Britons, Welsh tribe of the Ordovices, was defined by Charles Lapworth in 1879 to resolve a dispute between followers of Adam Sedgwick and Roderick Murchison, who were placing the same Rock (geology), rock beds in North Wales in the Cambrian and Silurian systems, respectively. Lapworth recognized that the fossil fauna in the disputed Stratum, strata were different from those of either the Cambrian or the Silurian systems, and placed them in a system of their own. The Ordovician received international approval in 1960 (forty years after Lapworth's death), when it was adopted as an official period of the Paleozoic Era by the International Union of Geological Sciences, Intern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Mountains Of New Zealand By Height
The following are lists of mountains in New Zealand ordered by height. Names, heights, topographic prominence and isolation, and coordinates were extracted from the official Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) Topo50 topographic maps at thinteractive topographic map of New Zealandsite. Mountains are referred to as ''maunga'' in the Māori language. Named summits over 2,900 m All summits over are within the Southern Alps, a chain that forms the backbone of the South Island, and all but one ( Mount Aspiring) are within a radius of Aoraki / Mount Cook. Some of these summits are mere shoulders on the ridges of Aoraki and Mount Tasman. The 100 highest mountains These are all the mountains over with a topographic prominence (drop) of at least , closely matching those on thlist of mountains of New Zealandby the New Zealand Alpine Club. Five peaks overlooked on that list are indicated with an asterisk. Of these 100 mountains, all but two — Ruapehu (Tahurangi Peak) (19th hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms when these minerals precipitate out of water containing dissolved calcium. This can take place through both biological and nonbiological processes, though biological processes, such as the accumulation of corals and shells in the sea, have likely been more important for the last 540 million years. Limestone often contains fossils which provide scientists with information on ancient environments and on the evolution of life. About 20% to 25% of sedimentary rock is carbonate rock, and most of this is limestone. The remaining carbonate rock is mostly dolomite, a closely related rock, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, . ''Magnesian limestone'' is an obsolete and poorly-defined term used variously for dolomite, for limes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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