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Petrology and Origin of Stratified Scree in New Zealand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Stuart A. Harris*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Calgary Canada

Abstract

Stratified scree in the Porters Pass area of the South Island New Zealand consists of up to 30 m of alternating bands of angular gravel and gravelly silt. The gravel consists of frost-shattered bedrock, while the silt appears to have originated from weathered till that entered the area as loess. Every 10 m of stratified scree actually contains at least 5 m of loess. Glaciers left oversteepened slopes on which screes subsequently formed, probably during later nearby glacial advances. The more gently sloping land may have been covered in vegetation as dense as today, but every l0-118 yr, widespread destruction of the vegetation resulted in a marked period of loess deposition. Thus the stratified scree of Soons (1962) has a different origin to that postulated for the grezes litées of European workers.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
University of Washington

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