Tag: New Zealand

The Sound of Stones Tumbling on the Beach

“…The chatter of the pebbles as they tumble against one another… A beach is a strip of loose material at the water’s edge, a collection of sand and stones assembled, disassembled, and reassembled by the sea. On the geologic time scale, it is ephemeral. And for most stones, the beach is just the latest stop on a journey that began eons ago.” [Margaret Carruthers, “Beach Stones” (with photos by Josie Iselin), 2006, page 7]

I took some video clips during my recent visit looking for stones on Otago and Southland beaches. This movie (below) shows two of the stony Southland beaches on which I spent some time. The first one is the “Back Beach” as I know it, but it is also known more officially as Howells Point Beach, at Riverton. This beach is 90% stony and lies straight across Foveaux Strait from Stewart Island – usually a wild beach with powerful surf, the day I was there it was very calm (though the day was wet, cool and gray). The second beach featured on this movie is Tihaka Beach on Colac Bay, at the far eastern end of the Bay. This is a long stony beach, and the surf was a little stronger than at the Back Beach. So it was particularly at Tihaka Beach that you could hear the stones being tumbled as the waves came in and then receded. Stone tumblers mimic this action and intensify it.

“A Photographic Guide to Rocks and Minerals of New Zealand” (2011)

This book, published in 2011, has been written by three employees of GNS Science, Nick Mortimer (a geologist), Hamish Campbell (a palaeontologist) and Margaret Low (a science photographer). GNS Science is a Crown Research Institute, New Zealand’s “leading provider of Earth, geoscience and isotope research and consultancy services”. According to the GNS Science website, the Institute’s role is “to understand natural Earth system processes and resources, and to translate these into economic, environmental and social benefits” for the nation.

This book measures 19 cm by 10 cm, has quite a small font size, and consists of 143 pages, in what is referred to on the back cover as a “compact field-guide format”, able to be carried in a knapsack or even back pocket. It sells for NZ$25.99 on the GNS publications web-page but can be purchased in many other places online and off.   

The first 21 pages contains an overview of minerals and rocks. This is followed by a large section of 112 pages of descriptions and photographs of different minerals and rocks to be found in New Zealand. The photographs are numerous and excellent. The text is to the point, readable, and often refers to places in New Zealand where various minerals and rocks are to be found.