lenicrombie
January 20th, 2005, 03:34 PM
I never knew the gold coast had a volcano until today
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA06664_modest.jpg http://www.bigvolcano.com.au/natural/wollum.htm
This now extinct volcano and the associated landscape complex has several names in common use. You may see it referred to in literature as the "Mount Warning Volcano", "Tweed Volcano", "Mount Warning Shield Volcano", the "Tweed Caldera", the "Tweed/Focal Volcano series", and in World Heritage literature - the "Border Group" or "Tweed Volcano Group".
The huge size of the Tweed Valley, the caldera of the Mt Warning shield volcano, gives us an inkling of what a monster it was. Today the caldera valley is over 1000 meters deep and has a diameter of over forty kilometres, making it larger even than the famous Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania.
What the heck is a caldera anyway? To vulcanologists a caldera* is a bowl shaped depression caused by the collapse or erosion of a volcanic cone.
*Caldera: Large depression commonly formed by collapse of the ground following explosive eruption of a large body of stored magma. (USGS).
The biggest erosion caldera in the southern hemisphere, and one of the largest calderas in the world, it is one of the world's great natural wonders, and also one of the few places where the erosion process can be seen to the underlying pre-volcanic sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, providing enthusiasts with a wonderful opportunity to test their knowledge of geological processes.
Moving over a hotspot in the earth's crust about 23 million years ago, the volcano erupted through the Brisbane Metamorphics Series which are 250 - 500 million years old, and spread out over the Clarence - Moreton Basin sedimentry floor, which was laid down 135 - 200 million years ago.
When the volcano finished it's eruptions about 20 million years ago, the volcano had risen to a height of over 2 kilometres. Layers of ash and lava had been deposited over its outward slopes, to a diameter of about 100 kilometres.
This spread the volcano out over an area from Byron Bay in the southeast, and Lismore in the southwest, to Mount Tamborine to the north in QLD.
Over the past 20 million years the vast majority of the material ejected has been eroded away. What remains is still mighty impressive. Mt Warning, the central magma plug, and a system of ring dykes, being extremely hard rock, have resisted erosion, and dominate the valley landscape, especially in and around the township of Murwillumbah.
The rim of the caldera has been protected by a cap of very hard basaltic rock, forming a virtual semi circle of vertical cliffs around the western side of Mt Warning, which now stands at just over 1100 meters tall, and is increasingly known by it's aboriginal name - "Wollumbin".
Being so high and so far east on the Australian coast, it is the first peak on the mainland in Australia to be touched by the rising sun at the Autumn and Spring Equinii.
Sugar cane, cattle and dairy farming make use of much of the rich post glacial alluvial deposits on the caldera floor, but the heights are protected by their inaccessibility and World Heritage listing of five National Parks.
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA06664_modest.jpg http://www.bigvolcano.com.au/natural/wollum.htm
This now extinct volcano and the associated landscape complex has several names in common use. You may see it referred to in literature as the "Mount Warning Volcano", "Tweed Volcano", "Mount Warning Shield Volcano", the "Tweed Caldera", the "Tweed/Focal Volcano series", and in World Heritage literature - the "Border Group" or "Tweed Volcano Group".
The huge size of the Tweed Valley, the caldera of the Mt Warning shield volcano, gives us an inkling of what a monster it was. Today the caldera valley is over 1000 meters deep and has a diameter of over forty kilometres, making it larger even than the famous Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania.
What the heck is a caldera anyway? To vulcanologists a caldera* is a bowl shaped depression caused by the collapse or erosion of a volcanic cone.
*Caldera: Large depression commonly formed by collapse of the ground following explosive eruption of a large body of stored magma. (USGS).
The biggest erosion caldera in the southern hemisphere, and one of the largest calderas in the world, it is one of the world's great natural wonders, and also one of the few places where the erosion process can be seen to the underlying pre-volcanic sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, providing enthusiasts with a wonderful opportunity to test their knowledge of geological processes.
Moving over a hotspot in the earth's crust about 23 million years ago, the volcano erupted through the Brisbane Metamorphics Series which are 250 - 500 million years old, and spread out over the Clarence - Moreton Basin sedimentry floor, which was laid down 135 - 200 million years ago.
When the volcano finished it's eruptions about 20 million years ago, the volcano had risen to a height of over 2 kilometres. Layers of ash and lava had been deposited over its outward slopes, to a diameter of about 100 kilometres.
This spread the volcano out over an area from Byron Bay in the southeast, and Lismore in the southwest, to Mount Tamborine to the north in QLD.
Over the past 20 million years the vast majority of the material ejected has been eroded away. What remains is still mighty impressive. Mt Warning, the central magma plug, and a system of ring dykes, being extremely hard rock, have resisted erosion, and dominate the valley landscape, especially in and around the township of Murwillumbah.
The rim of the caldera has been protected by a cap of very hard basaltic rock, forming a virtual semi circle of vertical cliffs around the western side of Mt Warning, which now stands at just over 1100 meters tall, and is increasingly known by it's aboriginal name - "Wollumbin".
Being so high and so far east on the Australian coast, it is the first peak on the mainland in Australia to be touched by the rising sun at the Autumn and Spring Equinii.
Sugar cane, cattle and dairy farming make use of much of the rich post glacial alluvial deposits on the caldera floor, but the heights are protected by their inaccessibility and World Heritage listing of five National Parks.