The Omarama Clay Cliffs, also known as the Ahuriri River Clay Cliffs and the Clay Cliffs Paritea are a group of

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...

s in southern

New Zealand 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 count ...

. They are located close to the north bank of the

Ahuriri River The Ahuriri River is a river in the Canterbury and Otago Regions of the South Island of New Zealand. The headwaters are on the eastern flanks of the Southern Alps. The river flows for through the southernmost part of the Mackenzie Basin befo ...

, some 10 km to the west of the township of

Omarama Omarama is a small town (population 291 at 2018 census) at the junction of State Highways 8 and 83, near the southern end of the Mackenzie Basin, in the South Island of New Zealand. Omarama is in the Waitaki District, in the southern Canterbu ...

. The cliffs serve as a

tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural b ...

in the area and they are privately owned. There is a fee to park.

Formation

The cliffs are made up of layers of

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

and

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

that were formed during glacial

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

around two million years ago, and are part of the Hawkdun Group of sediments. The cliffs were uplifted by the nearby

Ostler Fault Ostler is a surname, and may refer to: People *Andreas Ostler (1921–1988), German Olympic bobsledder *Blake Ostler (born 1955), American attorney *Dominic Ostler (born 1970), English cricketer * Nicholas Ostler (born 1952), British linguist *Will ...

References

Tourist attractions in New Zealand Cliffs of Oceania Waitaki District Rock formations of Canterbury, New Zealand {{CanterburyNZ-geo-stub