New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics abstracts
Evidence of glacial activity at Mt Allen, southern Stewart Island,
New Zealand
ANDREW ALLIBONE
Etheridge Henley Williams Geoscience Consultants
P.O. Box 250, Deakin West
ACT 2600, Australia
SCOTT WILSON
Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences
Private Bag 1930
Dunedin, New Zealand
Abstract Arcuate ridges of poorly consolidated conglomerate
located on the eastern face of Mt Allen, southern Stewart Island, represent
moraines deposited during the Otiran Glaciation. The size of the ridges, their
distance from the steep eastern face of Mt Allen, the presence of a sandy
matrix and some subrounded pebbles and boulders indicates that they are not
protalus ramparts or slump deposits.
The altitudes of the moraines and an associated cirque indicate an equilibrium
line altitude ("snow line") between 580 and 620 m at Mt Allen during the
Otiran Glaciation. This relatively low altitude is compatible with other Otiran
equilibrium line altitudes determined in the central and southern parts of the
Southern Alps that predict an Otiran equilibrium line altitude between 300 and
550 m at Mt Allen, assuming comparable amounts of precipitation during
Pleistocene and modern times. The presence of Otiran moraines at Mt Allen
implies that remains of earlier moraines associated with more extensive earlier
phases of glaciation are also likely to be present on the higher hills of
Stewart Island.
Keywords moraine; equilibrium line altitude; Otiran;
glaciation; Mt Allen; Mt Anglem; Stewart Island
New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 1997, Vol. 40: 151-155
0028-8306/97/4002-0151 $7.00/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
1997
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (2520K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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