Exploded pagoda

It's usually called the 'Plain of Shards', presumably in reference to the Plain of Jars in Laos, which I also visited once. But apparently, it's also been referred to as the 'Exploded Pagoda'.

It's on the way to Point Cameron in the Gardens of Stone National Park. (See here: Point Cameron walk )

 

 

 

And it looks exactly like .......... an exploded pagoda. So if there's another theory about what it is and how it got there, (or how the pagoda exploded), let's hear about it!

Bound for South Australia - 6: Wilpena Pound & St Mary Peak

It's one of the classic walks: the St Mary Peak circuit at Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges. I had an attempt at it over 40 years ago, but we ran out of time and/or inclination when the track became a bit steep and precipitous in the approach to the Peak.

No false moves this time though. Here are my walking companions as we set out from the Wilpena resort, ready for our 9 hour, 21km day walk.

The pound itself is a large saucer-shaped area, several kilometres across, with a surrounding rim of mountains. Origin stories include giant serpents and meteorite strike. I think the mainstream one involves geological deformations and differential erosion rates.

In the 19th century it was used briefly as a grazing property, initially supporting many thousands of sheep and cattle. A few years later they were almost all dead, following the inevitable drought.

 

 

 

 

 

Approaching St Mary Peak

 

 

 

 

 

Exploring the top

 

 

 

Looking to the north, and to some of those serpentine mountain chains winding through the Flinders Ranges landscape

 

Back at the Wilpena resort, every evening there's a bit of a welcome talk and story telling session from a local traditional owner.

Yehliu Geopark

It's a very popular tourist destination in northern Taiwan, an easy day trip out from Taipei. Maybe a little too popular, as in it's extremely crowded. But there's some very eye-catching scenery.

I'm sure there's lots here for geologists to wonder at, but mostly we're looking at the various formations, and trying to work out which is the 'Fairy Shoe', which the 'Elephant Rock', the 'Ice Cream Rock', and the 'Kissing Rock'. The most famous rock of all is the 'Queen's Head'. It's said to look like Queen Nefertiti (though one site said Queen Elizabeth 1st). That's only when you view it from the correct position though, and there was an enormous queue to get to that position!

There were several prominent sea anemone fossils,and signs saying not to damage the fossils and things. I'd prefer that they'd actually protected them with fences though.

These were the 'sea candles'. Possibly unique to here?

Hallett Cove: geologists' delight

An Adelaide sightseeing site that I'd only heard about recently is Hallett Cove, 20km or so down the coast. At the Hallett Cove Conservation Park you get to see several hundred million years of geological history laid out before you, and all nicely explained. I'm not a geologist, but I'm happy to learn, and enjoyed the visit. The best known feature, the Sugarloaf, looks like a funny little volcano. It isn't. Here's a bit of better informed commentary: Geology info

You can get there by train either via Hallett Cove station or Hallett Cove Beach station. What else do visitors do around there? You could take inspiration from the mural at Hallett Cove Beach.

Wollangambe Crater

The walk in to Wollangambe Crater in the Blue Mountains is one of those classic bushwalks that I've been doing every few years since I moved to Sydney. 

The walk usually starts at Bell. You walk for a few hours in sometimes quite wild country, to an unusual saucer-shaped feature, the origin of which seems to be the subject of some debate by geologists and others who claim to be in the know.


Was it an asteroid impact, a volcano, or is it just a coincidental arrangement of ridges and valleys formed by the usual erosion forces? Or was it the 'electric machining' referred to on the website thunderbolts.info  The aerial photo above is from that site, and is credited to Garry Maxfield. I must admit it's never looked all that cratery to me from within it though.

I did the walk again last weekend, with a party of mostly Wollangambe newbies. The big bushfire a few years back, and the subsequent regrowth, has made the usual 'tricky navigation' sequences even trickier than usual, so we weren't let down in the occasional positional uncertainty department. But it's hard to get very lost these days, with all those GPS devices around.

We all posed for pictures on my favourite armchair tree. And we admired a good crop of late-flowering waratahs.



























Below: A lazy lunch in the crater