Dun Mountain is a mountain in the Richmond Range near the city of
Nelson
Nelson may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey
* ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers
* ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...
in the
Tasman District
Tasman District () is a local government district in the northwest of the South Island of New Zealand. It borders the Canterbury Region, West Coast Region, Marlborough Region and Nelson City. It is administered by the Tasman District Council, ...
of
New Zealand's
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country b ...
South Island. It is located between the catchments of the
Pelorus,
Maitai and
Roding Rivers. The mountain is named for its brown (
Dun
A dun is an ancient or medieval fort. In Ireland and Britain it is mainly a kind of hillfort and also a kind of Atlantic roundhouse.
Etymology
The term comes from Irish ''dún'' or Scottish Gaelic ''dùn'' (meaning "fort"), and is cognat ...
) colour. The colour is caused by the
ultramafic rock
Ultramafic rocks (also referred to as ultrabasic rocks, although the terms are not wholly equivalent) are igneous and meta-igneous rocks with a very low silica content (less than 45%), generally >18% MgO, high FeO, low potassium, and are composed ...
which forms the mountain. Ultramafic Rock weathers to this colour and plant growth is also stunted due to the soils high heavy metal content.
The ultramafic rock formed in the earth's
mantle in the Permian and is now part of the
Dun Mountain Ophiolite Belt.
In 1859 the rock type
dunite
Dunite (), also known as olivinite (not to be confused with the mineral olivenite), is an intrusive igneous rock of ultramafic composition and with phaneritic (coarse-grained) texture. The mineral assemblage is greater than 90% olivine, with ...
was first identified on the mountain and named after it.
Between 1850 and 1865 small deposits of
chromite and
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
were mined on the mountain leading to the building of New Zealand's
first railway.
References
External links
New Zealand Encyclopedia 1966: Dun MountainDun Mountain Trail (bike trail 2011)
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