Putangirua Pinnacles

New Zealand / Hawkes Bay / Waipawa /
 mountain, geology, screes

The “badlands erosion” of Putangirua Pinnacles is a spectacular landscape feature attracting many visitors to the southern Wairarapa.
When the Aorangi Range was an island, 7 to 9 million years ago, screes poured gravels onto the coast, much as they do today around Cape Palliser.
The Putangirua Stream has exposed this ancient layer of gravels to the erosive forces of rain and floods. Where cemented silts or rocks within the gravel beds prove more resistant than the underlying sediments, spectacular individual pinnacles or “hoodoos” are formed.
It is one of the best examples in New Zealand of badlands erosion and earth pillar formation.
www.doc.govt.nz/templates/page.aspx?id=34950
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   41°26'54"S   175°14'42"E
This article was last modified 9 years ago