Stone polishers become interested in geology and geological formations as therein lie the origins of the stones that have caught our imagination. I have also long felt drawn to limestone landscapes, their outcrops and their caves. Limestone often holds fossils which turn out to be vital to geological dating of strata.
In February 2016, when Petra and I spent a few weeks in the South Island of New Zealand, we visited the Duntroon area in the Waitaki Valley to see the limestone landscapes there. The local community had formed the Vanished World Society in the early 2000s to help raise public awareness about the very interesting geology of the Waitaki district. The Society is active in promoting the science, conservation and appropriate use of local geological resources. The fossils, limestone landscapes and volcanic sequences of the area have been important in the conceptual origins and ongoing development of geological understanding at a national level. Geologists from the University of Otago have developed a positive and ongoing relationship with the landowners in the Waitaki district, primarily as part of a research programme on local fossils.
The Vanished World Trail is a set of more than 20 sign-posted freely-accessible locations spanning coastal localities from Moeraki to Oamaru and extending inland through the Waitaki Valley. After visiting the Vanished World Centre in the village of Duntroon, Petra and I drove 6.5 kilometres down a gravel road to a place known as “Earthquakes”.
As explained in the roadside information panel (see below), the name “Earthquakes” reflected an early-held belief that the limestone cliffs here were a fault escarpment, but it is now thought that a massive landslide created them.
In a 2010 newspaper article, a local historian, Elizabeth McCone, said that visitors needed to take care when wandering through the various crevasse and fault scarps of Earthquakes. “It’s a typical limestone formation and it’s got sinkholes.” Ms McCone reported that there was a commonly held belief among geologists that there was an underground river or waterway originally in the area and the “roof” collapsed, resulting in the unique land formations. “Limestone areas have huge caves and underground rivers. Duntroon has huge caverns underneath it. You can walk under Duntroon for quite a length – almost from the bridge up to the Presbyterian church.”
Petra and I walked up to the Earthquakes cliffs from the roadside and came upon another information panel sited opposite the fossil of an ancient baleen whale.
We then pressed on, cameras in hand, along the great cliffs, keeping to the narrow pathway worn by previous visitors as it snaked around boulders and crevices. To the right of us ran the long clean line of the towering cliffs. After perhaps just less than a kilometre, they ran out and we turned to look back down the valley before making our return.
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