Download It is nearly impossible to visit New Zealand and not become

It is nearly impossible to visit New Zealand and not become interested in geology. To learn how
the beautiful landscapes were created is not to destroy a mystery, but to open a door to wonder
and awe. We, as humans, tend to think of the world as solid, stable, and unchanging. Any change
that happens occurs so slowly that we cannot see it with our naked eyes and thus forget about it
easily. But New Zealand is one of those rare places where the geological processes are still so
dynamic that one is constantly met with a reminder that our world changes as we change.
Geographically, New Zealand is two main islands and several smaller islands scattered around
which cover on area of 1600km from north to south. To give a frame of reference, New
Zealand’s land mass is only slightly larger than Colorado. New Zealand has many rivers and
lakes due to the large amounts of rainfall they receive. Currently, New Zealand can be found
between 34 degrees S and 47 degrees S putting it right in the middle of the ‘Roaring Forties’
latitude and explaining the large amounts of wind New Zealand receives. The moisture-filled air
usually comes from the Tasman Sea to the West and thus the west side of New Zealand receives
more rain than the east side. However, the Southern Alps in the South island create more of a
barrier and thus more of a rain shadow than the volcanic chain in the North Island. Lonely
Planet: Tramping in New Zealand likes to remind its readers that New Zealand is a maritime
climate, not a continental climate and as such the weather is subject to change with amazing
rapidity – a fact to which any tramper or visitor to New Zealand can easily attest (DuFresne, 23)!
Geologically, New Zealand is amazingly active as it sits on two tectonic plates. The North Island
and some parts of the South Island are located on the Australian Plate while the rest of the South
Island is on the Pacific Plate. Currently, the Pacific plate is being subducted underneath the
Australian Plate which, in the case of the North Island leads to many active volcanoes. In the
South Island, however, subduction is not possible because continental land mass is too light and
buoyant to ever subduct. As a result, the two continental crusts push together in orogenesis and
have created the Southern Alps which uplift as much as 10mm per year. In spite of the massive
amounts of weathering inflicted on the Southern Alps by wind and rain, the mountains continue
to grow faster than they can be eroded.
New Zealand was once part of Gondwanaland, a hypothetical super continent which was also
composed of Australia, Antarctica, Africa, India, and South America. Gondwanaland began
splitting apart approximately 160 million years ago during the Jurrasic Period and New Zealand
broke off from Gondwanaland about 85 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. The
oldest rocks in New Zealand have been dated at approximately 500 million years old.
Perhaps the most exciting thing about New Zealand is one’s ability to see so many different
geomorphologic phenomena.
In the North Island there are many sandy beaches, tall forests, volcanoes, and geothermal hot
spots. In the South Island, there are the high mountains and the flat plains and well as the steep
fiords and many large glaciers.
Literature Cited:
DuFresne, Jim. Lonely Planet: Tramping in New Zealand. Victoria: Lonely Planet Publications
Pty Ltd, 2002.