Australian Landmarks Essay

Rock Canyon is an excellent site for geologic research and has been investigated by geologists from around Utah and neighboring states. With outstanding extrusions of quartzite, tillite and limestone, it’s a favored destination for hikers, rock climbers and scientists. The quartzite is considered the most unique feature of Rock Canyon as it’s one of the few clear and distinct examples of the sedimentary processes involved with a shallow marine setting. The tillite beneath the quartzite draws attention to the ancient glaciers to the past. In conjunction with the active Wasatch Fault found at its doorstep, Rock Canyon is an important place in Utah for geologists.

The oldest rocks found in the Death Valley region were formed in the Precambrian time period no more than 1.8 billion years ago during the latter half of the Proterozoic Eon. The rocks are seen on the steep face of the Black Mountains above the current area of Badwater and were formed via deposits of mud and sand from an ancient volcanic mountain belt. Sometime between 1.8 and 1.7 billion years ago, the volcanic and sedimentary rocks were severely altered when chemical or structural changes occurred because of intense heat or pressure from the Earth's core. Because of this process, any fossilized information about the region was lost making it impossible to truly understand the origin of the region. There is some debate on whether basalt or schist was the original and dominate rock in the region before it was transformed into contorted gneiss, but again, there is no way to prove either theory.

The site is of major geoconservation significance because of being the only place on earth where rocks from the earth’s mantle - 6 km

The youngest of these rocks are dated at about 220,000 years ago. Rhyodacties and quartz latites in the modern caldera area extruded from about 320,000 years ago to 260,000 years ago, and then silica-rich rhyolites at Glass Mountain northeast of the caldera erupted from about 210,000 years ago to 80,000 years ago. The scattered distribution of the initial mafic eruptions indicates that they were erupted from the mantle, while the slightly younger domes and flows were from a deep-crustal source. The youngest rhyolite eruptions erupted at the northeast rim of the caldera at Glass Mountain and were the first activity of the silicic Long Valley magma chamber (Bailey, et. al., 1989).

The Glasshouse Mountains are volcanic plugs that were originally surrounded by sandstone (MSCR, 2012). The plugs are formed of material that is more resistant to erosion than the sandstone that once surrounded it, and the plugs were revealed when the softer rock eroded away (Tourism Australia, 2015). The weathering of the sandstone is evidence to support the existence of

Kangaroo Point Cliffs are one of the most iconic places that highlight Brisbane city’s history along with the Brisbane City Hall and Story Bridge. These cliffs were known by Aborigines even before European settlers arrived in Brisbane. The development around the Kangaroo Point Cliff was started in the 1900s when roads were developed around the cliff. Today, the Kangaroo Point Cliff offers many adventurous activities such as rock climbing, kayaking on the Brisbane River, Segway tours, bike riding around the garden etc. The rocks found on these steep cliffs are known as the ‘Brisbane Tuff’. These unique pink and green stones were also used in building public buildings during the 1820s and 1830s. The very steep feature and gas holes on the cliff plays a significant role in identifying these cliffs a result of a volcanic eruption (Visit Brisbane, 2018). This essay analyses geological formation of Kangaroo Point cliff and the Brisbane tuff which the

Silicious lava, forced up from deep down below. Soda trachytes extruded in a highly viscous state, building the steep-sides mametons we see in Hanging Rock. And quite young, geologically speaking. Barely a millions years old. (Greene, 11)

One of the major things noticeable from the cross section is that quite a few of the rock layers are over turned, where the older rock layers are above the newer rock layers. This is seen in the contact between the Quartz Monzonite of Papoose Flat and the Campito Formation which is also a disconformity. Next there is some fault zones separating the Camptio, Poleta, and Harkless formations. We then see some more overturned layers with the contacts between Saline Spring Valley Formation (lower and upper members) above the Mule Spring Formation along with some inferred folding. With a normal fault separating the inferred folding event, we see where the overturning occurs. In between the Cambrian layers we see Tertiary Basalt nonconformities also being folded, thus with that we know that the folding event was more recent than the formation of the Basalt. Next there is a large Basalt field with a spot of the Harkless formation. Again we see over tuning as the Basalt field ends there are the Devonian and Mississippian rock Layers on top of the basalt. Separating these overturned layers from the Harkless Formation and the Saline valley Formation (upper member), which are not overturned, is a thrust fault. From this information, there was a major stress event sometime after the Tertiary period causing the rock layers to fold and overturn. And from this stress event and from the folding, normal and thrust faults are formed. Finally we see that there were alluvial and landslide deposits from the Quaternary after the folding, faulting, and over

Proof of volcanic activity related to the break-up of Australia and Antarctica is seen at Bunbury, which is located 150km south of Perth, at the point where the basalt is of early Cretaceous, also on the middle Jurassic Kangaroo Island. However, evidence of Cenozoic eruptions is only seen in Eastern Highland. All through the Cenozoic, hot spot volcanic event transpire (Sutherland et al., 1985). Most of these events follow the Miocene (Stephenson et al., 1980) with recent eruptions close to the southern and northern margin of volcanic zone at southeast of South Australia and north Queensland respectively.

Uluru is the biggest rock in the world. It is 9.4km if you walk around it and about 345 metres high if you climb it. It's 3.6km long, 2km wide, and is a roughly oval shape. It's made of arkosic sandstone and is renowned for the way it changes colour in the light and is particularly spectacular at sunrise and sunset.

A period of volcanism resulted in igneous intrusions within the Raton Basin-Sierra Grande Uplift Province that was sourced from the upper mantle about 26. 6 billion years ago and is associated with parallel dikes and sills (Higley, 2007). Igneous rocks are common within the Raton Basin and include Tertiary dikes and sills that range in age from 6.7 to 29 5 million years ago (Flores and Bader, 1999). One of the main differences between dikes and sills is that dikes are longer lived magma conduits and sills are features that form when magma is in neutral buoyancy with the surrounding rock (Rooper et al., 2006). These volcanic events are associated with hydrothermal alteration of coal within the basin (Higley, 2007).

Our sites (Figure 1.) were spread along the lowest reach of Merri Creek before it runs into the Yarra River. As a direct result of this there is an extensive valley from the constant presence of fluvial processes over geological time. The landform patterns at our sites were extensively governed by the movement and availability of water, with escarpments, gullies, cliffs and spurs of varying steepness all observed.

It is currently the largest exposed granite in the world weighing approximately one trillion pounds; although, only one third of the mountain can be seen as a majority of the mountain expands below ground as far as North Carolina. The enormous pluton mountain, as scientifically identified by geologist, was formed by a complex folding and faulting that had subsequently created the Blue ridge mountains. Though what remains as a mystery to many geologist is as to how such a massive granite mountain has become exposed. Although there are several theories that have been publicated to explain such a phenomena none are substantial or advocated the most. While the origins of Stone Mountain are elusive, the correlations of this landmarks with american history are intricately

The geological activity that created the country’s mountains, plains, and rivers ceased millions of years ago. Earthquakes are very rare and the last volcanic eruption occurred more than 5,000 years ago. The highest mountain in Australia, Mount

Roughly 45-50,000 years ago the South Sister that is also known as Charity began its primary formation. It is the youngest of the three sisters and currently the tallest. According to https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/ this time period is known as the Rock Mesa Eruptive Cycle and it is during this cycle that the middle sister also began forming. According to https://volcanoes.usgs.gov these early eruptions produced many rhyolite lava flows and domes. Between 30-37,000 years ago the main cone of the south sister began to form consisting of rhyolite and andesite domes and flows. The construction of the dome was then completed and capped off by a massive eruption that left pyroclastic deposits up to 200 meters in depth. Following this eruption a period of roughly 7000 years began that consisted of relatively large eruptions of andesite and lava fountains. According to https://volcanoes.usgs.gov these lava fountains fed lava flows that built up the apron of the cone and the initial summit crater. This crater was later filled up and built upon by dactite flows, which now make up roughly the upper 150 meters of todays South Sister.