Dunollie is a small

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

on the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

of the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

of New Zealand, approximately 8 km from

Greymouth Greymouth () (Māori: ''Māwhera'') is the largest town in the West Coast region in the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the Grey District Council. The population of the whole Grey District is , which accounts for % of the West Coas ...

. It is at an elevation of approximately 30 meters. Dunollie was a station on the Rewanui line railway. Coal deposits were discovered in the

Paparoa Ranges The Paparoa Range is a mountain range in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. It was the first New Zealand land seen by a European – Abel Tasman in 1642. Part of the range has the country's highest protection as a national park; ...

.Bowen, "Paparoa Range", ''1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand''

Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event

The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event,also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) extinction, was a sudden mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth approximately 66 million years ago. Some 2 kilometers up the valley near the river bed and near the Moody Creek mine, a layer of rock was found where the formation of coal had abruptly ended some 66 million years ago. The top of the coal was coated with a thin layer of Iriduim and then there occurred a 40,000 year

Fern Spike In paleontology, a fern spike is the occurrence of unusually high spore abundance of ferns in the fossil record, usually immediately (in a geological sense) after an extinction event. The spikes are believed to represent a large, temporary incre ...

. This formation was key in proving the size, severity and the global nature of the Chixulub Impactor. The K–Pg extinction event was severe, global, rapid, and selective, eliminating a vast number of species. Based on marine fossils, it is estimated that 75% or more of all species were made extinct.

References

Populated places in the West Coast, New Zealand {{WestCoastNZ-geo-stub