What is the big plateau rock in Australia called?
Independence Rock (Wyoming)
The rock is a large rounded monolith of Archean granite typical of the surrounding region and is an isolated peak at the southeast end of the Granite Mountains. Its appearance is somewhat like the rounded Enchanted Rock of Texas or Uluru in Australia (formerly known as Ayers Rock), although smaller in size. It is located in the high plateau region of central Wyoming, north of the Sentinel Rocks ridge and adjacent to the Sweetwater River. It is accessible from a rest area on Wyoming Highway 220, approximately northeast of Muddy Gap and south-west of Casper.
Bedout
Bedout , or more specifically the Bedout High, is a geological and geophysical feature centered about 250 km off the northwestern coast of Australia in the Canning and overlying Roebuck basins. Although not obvious from sea floor topography, it is a roughly circular area about 30 km in diameter where older rocks have been uplifted as much as 4 km towards the surface. The Bedout High was penetrated by two petroleum exploration wells (Bedout-1, Lagrange-1) in the 1970s and 1980s. It is named after nearby Bedout Island.
List of rocks in Western Australia, F-K
This is a list of rocks in Western Australia. It includes all gazetted rocks, boulders, pinnacles, crags, needles, pillars, rock formations, and tors in Western Australia, both inland and offshore. It does not include monoliths gazetted as mounts or hills, such as Mount Augustus.
Kokerbin Rock
Kokerbin Rock, also known as Kokerbin Hill, is a granite rock formation located within the Kokerbin Nature Reserve in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The area has special significance for Noonga. There are claims that Kokerbin Rock is the third largest monolith in Australia, with Mount Wudinna in South Australia being the second largest and Uluru in the Northern Territory being the largest. The Kokerbin Nature Reserve is approximately east of Quairading and south of Kellerberrin by road.
Pelican Lagoon, South Australia
Pelican Lagoon is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located on the south coast of Dudley Peninsula on Kangaroo Island overlooking the body of water known in Australia as the Southern Ocean and by international authorities as the Great Australian Bight. It is located about south of the state capital of Adelaide and about south-west of Penneshaw.
Kata Tjuta
Kata Tjuṯa, (Pitjantjatjara: , lit. 'many heads'; ), also known as the Olgas, is a group of large, domed rock formations or bornhardts located about 360 km southwest of Alice Springs, in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. Uluru, also known as "Ayers Rock", located to the east, and Kata Tjuta form the two major landmarks within the Uluru-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. The park is considered sacred to the Aboriginal people of Australia.
Pellaea calidirupium
Pellaea calidirupium ("Hot rock fern") is a plant, of eastern Australia restricted to rock crevices in relatively arid environments. It is found in Tasmania where it is considered rare and is only found on the East Coast, the Midlands and lower slopes of the Centtral Plateau on dry rock faces. It is also found in Victoria and Queensland. The species was originally described from New Zealand, where it has a disjunct distribution.
Coffee rock
Coffee rock is the common name for the rock-like formations of indurated sands that were formed from ancient river sediments of the Pleistocene age.
Coffee rock has been exposed by coastal weathering process on the beaches of Broadwater and Bundjalung National Parks in New South Wales, Australia. In addition, exposures can be seen in North Queensland, Australia at Kurrimine Beach, and in South East Queensland on Fraser Island and at the entry to Coonowrin Lake, Caloundra.
Judgement Rocks
The Judgement Rocks, part of the Kent Group, is a small unpopulated granite islet and some associated bare rocks, located in the Bass Strait, lying off the north-east coast of Tasmania, between the Furneaux Group and Wilsons Promontory in Victoria, Australia. The islet and associated rocks are contained within the Kent Group National Park.
Big Bend, South Australia
Big Bend in South Australia is the longest single bend in the Murray River. The area is known for its spectacular riverside cliffs, which are the tallest along the Murray River. The limestone cliffs are rich with millions of ocean fossils and are home to colonies of bats. Caves in the area have been continuously occupied for at least 8,000 years and are sacred to the local aboriginal community. There is a collection of holiday shacks located on the banks.
Ficus platypoda
Ficus platypoda, commonly known as the desert fig or rock fig, is a fig that is endemic to central and northern Australia. It is a lithophytic plant that grows on rocky outcrops, reaching 10 m in height.
Geology of Australia
The Petermann Orogeny in Central Australia, which started at the end of the Neoproterozoic, continued into the Cambrian, shedding a thick intracontinental sequence of fluvial sediments into the central Australian landmass. Marginal platforms and passive margin basins existed in South Australia – – formed in the foreland of the Delamerian Orogeny. Western Australian passive margin basins and platform cover begin at this stage.
The extensive Antrim Plateau flood basalts, covering in excess of 12,000 square kilometres, erupt in the Cambrian of Western Australia, providing a useful chronostratigraphic marker.
Australia (continent)
Archaeological terminology for this region has changed repeatedly. Before the 1970s, the single Pleistocene landmass was called "Australasia", derived from the Latin "australis", meaning "southern", although this word is most often used for a wider region that includes lands like New Zealand that are not on the same continental shelf. In the early 1970s, the term "Greater Australia" was introduced for the Pleistocene continent. Then at a 1975 conference and consequent publication, the name "Sahul" was extended from its previous use for just the Sahul Shelf to cover the continent.
Pelorus Islet
Pelorus Islet (also known as Pelorus Reef and Pelorus Rock) is an islet in the Australian state of South Australia located in Great Australian Bight off the south coast of Kangaroo Island approximately east south-east of Cape Gantheaume. It was named by Captain Francis Harding, RN after HMS "Pelorus".
Oceania
The Pacific Plate, which makes up most of Oceania, is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate. The plate contains an interior hot spot forming the Hawaiian Islands. It is almost entirely oceanic crust. The oldest member disappearing by way of the plate tectonics cycle is early-Cretaceous (145 to 137 million years ago).
Australia
The landscapes of the Top End and the Gulf Countrywith their tropical climateinclude forest, woodland, wetland, grassland, rainforest and desert. At the north-west corner of the continent are the sandstone cliffs and gorges of The Kimberley, and below that the Pilbara. To the south of these and inland, lie more areas of grassland: the Ord Victoria Plain and the Western Australian Mulga shrublands. At the heart of the country are the uplands of central Australia. Prominent features of the centre and south include Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock), the famous sandstone monolith, and the inland Simpson, Tirari and Sturt Stony, Gibson, Great Sandy, Tanami, and Great Victoria deserts, with the famous Nullarbor Plain on the southern coast.
Kanangra-Boyd National Park
The Kanangra-Boyd Wilderness is among the largest and most rugged wilderness areas in New South Wales. Situated to the south of in the Blue Mountains and the Kanangra-Boyd National Parks, this folded belt or "Rim Rock" area is markedly different from the Permo-Triassic sandstone dominated landforms which comprise the rest of the Blue Mountains. There are isolated residual cappings of Permian sandstone in a few places but here the Palaeozoic basement rocks, which are elsewhere buried well below the Permo-Triassic Measures, are on the surface as high land. Rock types include quartzite, diorite, Devonian rhyolites, rhyo-dacites, Silurian phyllites, slates, siltstones and tuff limestones. The Boyd Plateau comprises a dome of Devonian granite intruded into Devonian quartzites and sedimentaries. There are also intrusive igneous rocks from the Carboniferous period. Kanangra Tops at the south-eastern end of the Plateau is one of the Permian outliers. Its fringing fault scarp – Kanangra Walls – comprises Permian sedimentaries of the Capertee Group which rests unconformably on a Devonian Lambie Group Basement. Nearby Kanangra Gorge is cut deep in rocks of the Lambie Group, and is one of Australia's deepest gorges. Cloudmaker and Guouogang are eroded remnants of Ordovician quartzite. Further east, in the Coxs River area, is the large Kanimbla granite batholith, implaced during the Carboniferous period. Colong Caves is another outstanding feature of the area. The main Upper Silurian limestone belt, in the Jenolan River valley to the north-west, is thick, long and located in a valley deep. This karst topography, created by the Jenolan and its tributaries, is one of the least understood in Australia.
Geology of Australia
Continental Australia is unique among the continents in that the measured stress field is not parallel to the present-day north-northeast directed plate motion. Most of the stress state in continental Australia is controlled by compression originating from the three main collision boundaries located in New Zealand, Indonesia and New Guinea, and the Himalaya (transmitted through the Indian and Capricorn plates). South of latitude −30°, the stress trajectories are oriented east–west to northwest–southeast. North of this latitude, the stress trajectories are closer to the present day plate motion, being oriented east-northeast–west-southwest to northeast–southwest. Notably, the main stress trajectories diverge most markedly from one another in north–central New South Wales (east-southeast to north-northeast), although the area is not known historically for earthquake activity. Young mountain building (< 5 Ma) in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia is driven from plate convergence at the boundary in New Zealand.
Giant koala
The giant koala ("Phascolarctos stirtoni") is an extinct arboreal marsupial which existed in Australia during the Pleistocene epoch. "Phascolarctos stirtoni" was about one third larger than the contemporary koala, "P. cinereus", and has had an estimated weight of , which is the same weight as a large contemporary male koala. Although considered a part of the Australian megafauna, its body mass excludes it from most formal definitions of megafauna. It is better described as a more robust koala, rather than a "giant"; in contrast, a number of Australian megafauna, such as "Diprotodon" and "Procoptodon goliah", were unambiguously "giants". The two koala species co-existed during the Pleistocene, occupying the same arboreal niche. The reason for the extinction of the larger of the two about 50,000 years ago is unknown, although there are various hypotheses for the extinction.
Great Victoria Desert
The Great Victoria is the largest desert in Australia and consists of many small sandhills, grassland plains, areas with a closely packed surface of pebbles (called desert pavement or gibber plains) and salt lakes. It is over wide (from west to east) and covers an area of from the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia to the Gawler Ranges in South Australia. The Western Australia Mallee shrub ecoregion lies to the west, the Little Sandy Desert to the northwest, the Gibson Desert and the Central Ranges xeric shrublands to the north, the Tirari and Sturt Stony deserts to the east, while the Nullarbor Plain to the south separates it from the Southern Ocean. Average annual rainfall is low and irregular, ranging from per year. Thunderstorms are relatively common in the Great Victoria Desert, with an average of 15–20 thunderstorms per annum. Summer daytime temperatures range from while in winter, this falls to .
Australian Plate
The Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate in the eastern and, largely, southern hemispheres. Originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, Australia remained connected to India and Antarctica until approximately when India broke away and began moving north. Australia and Antarctica began rifting and completely separated roughly . The Australian plate later fused with the adjacent Indian Plate beneath the Indian Ocean to form a single Indo-Australian Plate. However, recent studies suggest that the two plates have once again split apart and have been separate plates for at least 3 million years and likely longer. The Australian plate includes the continent of Australia, including Tasmania, as well portions of New Guinea, New Zealand, and the Indian Ocean basin.
Great Forest National Park
The Great Forest National Park is a proposed national park in Victoria, Australia. The park would protect the forests of the Central Highlands and the endangered Leadbeater's possum. The park would protect the habitat of the locally threatened native Mountain Ash ("Eucalyptus regnans") - the tallest flowering trees on the planet, and a large part of Melbourne's water catchment.
List of rocks in Western Australia, C-E
This is a list of rocks in Western Australia. It includes all gazetted rocks, boulders, pinnacles, crags, needles, pillars, rock formations, and tors in Western Australia, both inland and offshore. It does not include monoliths gazetted as mounts or hills, such as Mount Augustus.
Wave Rock
Wave Rock is a natural rock formation that is shaped like a tall breaking ocean wave. The "wave" is about high and around long. It forms the north side of a solitary hill, which is known as "Hyden Rock". This hill, which is a granite inselberg, lies about east of the small town of Hyden and east-southeast of Perth, Western Australia. Wave Rock and Hyden Rock are part of a nature reserve, Hyden Wildlife Park. More than 140,000 tourists visit Wave Rock every year.
Western Plateau
The "Western Plateau" or sometimes referred as the Australian Shield, is Australia's largest drainage division and is composed predominantly of the remains of the ancient rock shield of Gondwana. It covers two thirds of the continent; 2,700,000 square kilometres of arid land including large parts of Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory. For comparison, it is roughly four times the size of, or the same size as the whole of continental Europe from Poland west to Portugal. It is Australia's largest drainage division.
Paarl
The district is particularly well known for its Pearl Mountain or "Paarl Rock". This huge granite rock is formed by three rounded outcrops that make up Paarl Mountain and has been compared in majesty to Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) in Australia. (However, they are not geologically similar. Paarl Rock consists of intrusive igneous rock, while Uluru is a sedimentary remnant).
Great Sandy Desert
The Great Sandy Desert is an interim Australian bioregion, located in the North West of Western Australia straddling the Pilbara and southern Kimberley regions. It is the second largest desert in Australia after the Great Victoria Desert and encompasses an area of The Gibson Desert lies to the south and the Tanami Desert lies to the east of the Great Sandy Desert.
Australia
Being the oldest, flattest and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils, Australia has a landmass of . A megadiverse country, its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east and mountain ranges in the south-east. A gold rush began in Australia in the early 1850s, which boosted the population of the country. Nevertheless, its population density, 2.8 inhabitants per square kilometre, remains among the lowest in the world. Australia generates its income from various sources including mining-related exports, telecommunications, banking and manufacturing. Indigenous Australian rock art is the oldest and richest in the world, dating as far back as 60,000 years and spread across hundreds of thousands of sites.
Giant white-tailed rat
The giant white-tailed rat ("Uromys caudimaculatus") is an Australian rodent native to tropical rainforest of north Queensland, with subspecies occurring in New Guinea and the Aru Islands. It is one of the largest rodents in Australia, reaching up to 1 kg in weight, is grey-brown above, cream to white below, and has a long, naked tail of which the distal section is white (Moore 1995).
Boyagin Rock
Boyagin Rock is located south west of Brookton and north west of Pingelly in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, which is approximately south east of Perth. The Boyagin Rock outcrop rises above the surrounding land and is an crestal area of a granite inselberg within the geological Yilgarn Craton framework. The Boyagin Rock Nature Reserve that contains Boyagin Rock, is widely recoginised as one of the few areas of original fauna and flora still intact on the Wheatbelt. It provides refuge for a variety of fauna including numbats, goannas, echidnas and Tammar wallabies.
Pine Mountain (Victoria)
Pine Mountain is argued to be the largest monolith in Australia at 1.5 times bigger than Uluru. The gigantic red granite monolith was uplifted to its present height of 1062 m more than 2 million years ago. Since then erosion has highlighted the steep eastern side, established several creeks, and in the upper area, created small rock pools which contain shrimp and tadpoles despite annual drying, and large granite "marbles" 2-3.5 m in diameter.
List of rocks in Western Australia, L-N
This is a list of rocks in Western Australia. It includes all gazetted rocks, boulders, pinnacles, crags, needles, pillars, rock formations, and tors in Western Australia, both inland and offshore. It does not include monoliths gazetted as mounts or hills, such as Mount Augustus.
Geology of Australia
The Palaeoproterozoic in southeastern Australia is represented by the polydeformed high-grade gneiss terranes of the Willyama Supergroup, Olary Block and Broken Hill Block, in South Australia and New South Wales. The Palaeoproterozoic in the north of Australia is represented mostly by the Mount Isa Block and complex fold-thrust belts.
Australia (continent)
For many species, the primary refuge was the relatively cool and well-watered Great Dividing Range. Even today, pockets of remnant vegetation remain in the cool uplands, some species not much changed from the Gondwanan forms of 60 or 90 million years ago. Eventually, the Australia–New Guinea tectonic plate collided with the Eurasian plate to the north. The collision caused the northern part of the continent to buckle upwards, forming the high and rugged mountains of New Guinea and, by reverse (downwards) buckling, the Torres Strait that now separates the two main landmasses. The collision also pushed up the islands of Wallacea, which served as island 'stepping-stones' that allowed plants from Southeast Asia's rainforests to colonise New Guinea, and some plants from Australia–New Guinea to move into Southeast Asia. The ocean straits between the islands were narrow enough to allow plant dispersal, but served as an effective barrier to exchange of land mammals between Australia–New Guinea and Asia.
Hippolyte Rocks
Hippolyte Rocks is a small granite island, with an area of 5.3 ha, in south-eastern Australia. It is part of the Tasman Island Group, lying close to the south-eastern coast of Tasmania around the Tasman Peninsula. It has a flat top and is surrounded by steep cliffs up to 65 m in height. It is part of the Tasman National Park.
Geography of Australia
Australia has the largest area of ocean jurisdiction of any country on earth. It has no land borders. The northernmost points of the country are the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland and the Top End of the Northern Territory.
The western half of Australia consists of the Western Plateau, which rises to mountain heights near the west coast and falls to lower elevations near the continental centre. The Western Plateau region is generally flat, though broken by various mountain ranges such as the Hamersley Range, the MacDonnell Ranges, and the Musgrave Range. Surface water is generally lacking in the Western Plateau, although there are several larger rivers in the west and north, such as the Murchison, Ashburton, and Victoria river.
Seven Summits
Using the largest tectonic plates, Europe and Asia could be grouped as Eurasia, and the very large Pacific plate would have Mauna Kea as its highest mountain. Puncak Jaya is actually on the Maoke Plate, which is usually grouped with the larger Australian plate. If not, then Mount Kosciuszko would likely revert to being the highest of that plate (see also Australasia).The highest mountain on the Australian mainland is Mount Kosciuszko, above sea level. However, the highest mountain in the Australian continent which includes Australia and New Guinea is Puncak Jaya, above sea level, in the Indonesian province of Papua on the island of New Guinea, which lies on the Australian continental shelf. Mount Kosciuszko is very easy to climb, being a four hour, grade 3 return walk from the nearest car park, while Puncak Jaya is difficult.
Australian pied cormorant
The Australian pied cormorant ("Phalacrocorax varius"), also known as the pied cormorant, pied shag, or great pied cormorant, is a medium-sized member of the cormorant family. It is found around the coasts of Australasia. In New Zealand, it is usually known either as the pied shag or by its Māori name of Kāruhiruhi. Older sources may refer to it as the "yellow-faced cormorant".
Great Australian Bight
The Nullarbor Plain, which borders much of the length of the Bight's coastline, is a former seabed, uplifted during the Miocene. Consisting of limestone, it is very flat, and has an arid or semi-arid climate with very little rainfall, and high summer temperatures and high evaporation rates. It has no surface drainage, but has a karst drainage system through cave formation in the underlying limestone. North of the Nullarbor lies the Great Victoria Desert, which has an internal drainage system terminating in numerous small salt lakes.
Norfolk Ridge
It is part of a complex region of ridges between the crust of the Pacific Basin and the continental crust of Australia. Little is known about the Norfolk Ridge; however, it generally lies about 2000 m below sea level and consists of Late Cretaceous continental crust. It is part of Zealandia, a submerged continent that sank 60-85 million years ago.
Geography of Australia
Off the eastern coast of Australia is the world's largest coral reef complex, the Great Barrier Reef. The State of Tasmania, a large and mountainous island, resides in the south-eastern corner of Australia.
Big Rock (glacial erratic)
Big Rock is a glacial erratic that is part of a long, narrow ( wide), linear scatter of thousands of distinctive quartzite and pebbly quartzite glacial erratics between and in length. This linear scatter of distinctive quartzite glacial erratics is known as the Foothills Erratics Train. The Foothills Erratics Train extends along the eastern flanks of the Rocky Mountains of Alberta and northern Montana to the International Border. The boulders and smaller gravel, which comprises the Foothills Erratics Train, consist of Lower Cambrian shallow marine quartzite and conglomeratic quartzite, which occurs only within the Gog Group and is found in the Athabasca River Valley of central western Alberta. Big Rock is the largest erratic within the Foothills Erratics Train. Lying on prairie to the east of the Rocky Mountains and like all the larger erratics, it is visible for a considerable distance across the prairie and likely served as a prominent landmark for Indigenous people.
Diamantinasaurus
The discovery of "Diamantinasaurus" ended a pause in the discovery of new dinosaurs in Australia, as the first sauropod named in over 75 years. Along with "Australovenator", "Diamantinasaurus" has been nicknamed after the Australian song "Waltzing Matilda", with "Australovenator" being called "Banjo" and "Diamantinasaurus" being nicknamed "Matilda". "Wintonotitan", also from the site, was dubbed "Clancy". The find was apparently the largest dinosaur discovery in Australia that was documented since that of "Muttaburrasaurus" in 1981.
Geology of Australia
The continental crust is composed primarily of Archaean, Proterozoic and some Palaeozoic granites and gneisses. A thin veneer of mainly Phanerozoic sedimentary basins cover much of the Australian landmass (these are up to 7 km thick).
Illawarra Coal Measures
The Illawarra Coal Measures is a group of sedimentary rocks occurring in the Sydney Basin in eastern Australia. This stratum is up to 150 metres thick. Formed in the late Permian, it comprises shale, quartz-lithic sandstone, conglomerate rocks, chert, with sporadically carbonaceous mudstone, coal and seams of torbanite. Coal mining of these measures remains a significant commercial enterprise to the present day. One of the abandoned coal mines in the Blue Mountains is now a tourist attraction.
Futuna Plate
The Futuna Plate is a very small tectonic plate located near the south Pacific island of Futuna.
It is sandwiched between the Pacific Plate to the north and the Australian Plate to the south with the Niuafo'ou Plate to the east.
Adelaide Rift Complex
The Adelaide Rift Complex (also known as Adelaide Geosyncline) is a major geological province in central South Australia. It stretches from the northernmost parts of the Flinders Ranges, narrowing at the Fleurieu Peninsula and extending into Kangaroo Island, and composes the two major mountain ranges of the State: the Flinders Ranges and the Mount Lofty Ranges. The sediments in the rift complex were deposited between about 870 Ma (the middle Neoproterozoic) to ~500 Ma (the end of the Cambrian). They consist of a thick pile of sedimentary rocks and minor volcanic rocks that were deposited on the eastern margin of Australia during the time of breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia. A number of authors have noted the similarity in these sedimentary rocks with rocks found in western North America and have suggested that they were formerly adjacent to each other in Rodinia. This is one major correlation in the so-called SWEAT (SW USA against East Antarctica) reconstruction of Rodinia.
Aboriginal stone arrangement
Australia's largest collection of standing stones is said to be at Murujuga, also known as the Burrup peninsula or the Dampier archipelago, in Western Australia, which includes tall standing stones similar to the European menhirs, as well as circular stone arrangements.
A very different example is found near Yirrkala in Arnhem Land, where there are detailed images of the praus used by Macassan fisherman fishing for Trepang, several hundred years before European contact. Here the stones are small (typically 10–20 cm), sit on the surface of the ground, and can easily be moved by hand, which also implies that they can be easily damaged or altered by modern hands, so that caution is needed when interpreting such sites. Similar examples are found scattered throughout Australia, mainly in remote or inaccessible places, and it is likely that there were many more prior to European settlement of Australia.
Springbrook, Queensland
Springbrook Plateau is the remains of the Tweed Volcano—now known as Mount Warning. The plateau is an undulating elevated patch that extends north from the southern, forested heights, close to Mount Cougal, just to the east. These subtropical rainforests are part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia and contain the rare Antarctic beech trees. Springbrook plateau has been described as "the Switzerland of Queensland" and a unique wonder. Springbrook was widely considered to be part of the McPherson Range. As the area's geology was understood it has now come to be typically described as a distinct plateau landform.
Banksia media
The southern plains banksia ("Banksia media"), also known as golden stalk banksia, is a species of shrub in the plant genus "Banksia". It occurs on the south coast of Western Australia between Albany and Israelite Bay, where it is a common plant. A many-branched bush with wedge-shaped serrated leaves and large golden-yellow flower spikes, known as inflorescences, it grows up to 10 metres (30 ft) high.
Banksia speciosa
Banksia speciosa, commonly known as the showy banksia, is a species of large shrub or small tree in the family Proteaceae. It occurs on the south coast of Western Australia between Hopetoun (33°57′ S) and the Great Australian Bight (approximately 33° S 130° E), growing on white or grey sand in shrubland. Reaching up to in height, it is a single-stemmed plant that has thin leaves with prominent triangular "teeth" along each margin, which are long and wide. The prominent cream-yellow flower spikes known as inflorescences appear throughout the year. As they age they develop up to 20 follicles each that store seeds until opened by fire. "Banksia speciosa". Though widely occurring, it is highly sensitive to dieback and large populations of plants have succumbed to the disease.
Rock cod
The rock cod ("Lotella rhacina") is a temperate fish found off the coasts of southeastern Australia, Tasmania, the Great Australian Bight and northwards up the southwestern Australia coasts. They are also found around the coasts of New Zealand and California. They belong to the family Moridae and are not related to the true cods (genus "Gadus"). They are also known as beardie in Australia.
Sorong Fault
Sorong fault also (Sorong Fault Zone, SFZ) is an active, broad zone of inferred left lateral shear at the triple junction of the Australian plate, Eurasian plate, and Pacific plates, where many plate fragments exist, such as the Philippine Sea Plate, Bird's Head Plate, Halmahera Plate and the Molucca Sea Plate. It has been implicated in numerous large earthquakes. It is one of the two major faults created by the Australian and Pacific plate convergence, the other being the Ramu-Markham Fault zone.
Kenn Reef
Kenn Reef is part of a submerged continental block, called the Kenn Plateau. The Kenn Plateau lies off the north eastern Australian coast and is a region characterised by a series of prominent, bathymetric troughs and marginal plateaux. And is submerged by 1000 m to over 3000 m of water. The Kenn Plateau, covers around 100,000 km², an area larger than the Tasmanian landmass.
Seven Third Summits
The Australian continent is defined as comprising the mainland of Australia and proximate islands on the same continental shelf, including Tasmania and New Guinea. In the convention of the seven continents, one of the continents is the region of Australasia, which includes for example the mountainous islands of New Zealand. For both the geological and conventional continent, New Guinea's Puncak Jaya / Carstensz Pyramid () and Puncak Mandala () are the two highest summits. When considering a continent as a continuous landmass surrounded by oceans, mainland Australia would be its own continent, with Mount Kosciuszko () and Mount Townsend () as its two highest summits.
Zenith Plateau
The Zenith Plateau is a large bathymetric high in the Indian Ocean, located about west-northwest of the Wallaby Plateau, west-northwest of Carnarvon, Western Australia, and north-west of Perth, Western Australia. The summit of the Zenith Plateau lies below sea level and its base is at about below sea level. It is about long and wide. In the east, the Zenith Plateau is separated from the Wallaby (Cuvier) Plateau by a wide, north to northeast-trending bathymetric trough. The Zenith Plateau lies outside of the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone.
Naturaliste Plateau
The Naturaliste Plateau formed during the Early Cretaceous 136 Ma when Australia and India broke up and during the Late Cretaceous 83 Ma when Australia and Antarctica broke up. Lavas and intrusive rocks on the plateau flanks have ages of between 132-128 Ma. The eastern flank of the plateau slopes relatively gently, while the other three flanks are relatively steep. The southern flank formed during the Australia-Antarctica break-up, the other flanks during the rifting between India and Australia. The continent ocean transition (COT) is wide on the north side and on the southern side where the plateau is flanked by the Diamantina Fracture Zone.
Mount York Claystone
Mount York Claystone is a narrow band of sedimentary rocks occurring in the Sydney Basin in eastern Australia. This stratum is up to 13 metres thick. Mount York Claystone consists of red brown claystones, of fine‐grained and coarsely oolitic, kaolinite clayrocks.
Geography of Arizona
The Colorado Plateau has the nickname "Red Rock Country" because of its brightly colored sedimentary rock left visible by dryness and erosion, and protected from deformation. The geology of the Colorado Plateau is exhibited by the canyons of the Colorado River, and the Grand Canyon exposes one of the most unique rock sequences in the world. The area hosts many distinctive natural features unique to Arizona, including the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Meteor Crater, Painted Desert, and the Petrified Forest.
Bald Hill Claystone
Bald Hill Claystone is a sedimentary rock found in the Sydney Basin in eastern Australia. It is part of the Clifton sub-group of the Narrabeen Group of sedimentary rocks. It was formed by weathering of the Gerringong Volcanics in the early Triassic. Named after Bald Hill, in the northern Illawarra, where it is 15 metres thick. The claystone is easily noticed at Long Reef, where it is 18 metres thick.
Great Dividing Range
The Great Dividing Range was formed during the Carboniferous period—over 300 million years ago—when Australia collided with what are now parts of South America and New Zealand. The range has experienced significant erosion since. (See Geology of Australia.)
Burrowa-Pine Mountain National Park
The Pine Mountain, one of the largest monoliths in Australia, is located within the park and is believed to be 1.5 times the size of Uluru. The highest peak in the park is Mount Burrowa at an elevation of above sea level.
Tourism in Australia
Popular Australian destinations include the coastal cities of Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, as well as other high-profile destinations including regional Queensland, the Gold Coast and the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest reef. Uluru and the Australian outback are other popular locations, as is the Tasmanian wilderness. The unique Australian wildlife is also another significant point of interest in the country's tourism.
Northern Australia
Although it comprises about half of the total area of Australia, Northern Australia includes only about one quarter of the Australian population. However, it includes several sources of Australian exports, being coal from the Great Dividing Range in Queensland/New South Wales and the natural gas and iron ore of the Pilbara region in WA. It also includes major natural tourist attractions, such as Uluru (Ayers Rock), the Great Barrier Reef and the Kakadu National Park.
Pine Mountain (Victoria)
Pine Mountain is a gigantic monolith, said to be 1.5 times bigger than Uluru, situated in the Burrowa-Pine Mountain National Park in Australia.
Geology of the Australian Capital Territory
Black Mountain Sandstone is deposited on top of State Circle Shale conformably. It is made up from thick beds of grey quartz sandstone mostly, but has some beds included of siltstone and grey shale. The grain size is fine to medium. It was originally named by Öpik after the mountain—Black Mountain where it is found. Originally it was believed to be Ordovician, but is actually from the Silurian period, late Llandoverian epoch. Some of the slopes of Black mountain are covered in fanglomerate. The deposition was in a marine proximal turbidite fan, with the turbidity current flowing to the east. There are no fossils, but there is some sedimentary structure including plane, cross or convolute laminations, load casts, slump units and flute moulds.
Geology of Australia
The geology of Australia includes virtually all known rock types and from all geological time periods spanning over 3.8 billion years of the Earth's history. Australia is a continent situated on the Indo-Australian Plate.
Niuafo'ou Plate
The Niuafo'ou Plate is a small tectonic plate located west of the islands of Tonga. This plate is sandwiched between the Pacific Plate to the north, the very unstable Tonga Plate to the east and the Australian Plate to the west. It is primarily surrounded by convergent boundaries. This plate is riddled with active faults thus making the area extremely earthquake prone.
Banksia marginata
Banksia marginata, commonly known as the silver banksia, is a species of tree or woody shrub in the plant genus "Banksia" found throughout much of southeastern Australia. It ranges from the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, to north of Armidale, New South Wales, and across Tasmania and the islands of Bass Strait. It grows in various habitats, including "Eucalyptus" forest, scrub, heathland and moorland. "Banksia marginata" varies widely in habit, ranging from a small shrub, high, to a large tree, tall. The narrow leaves are linear and the yellow inflorescences (flower spikes) occur from late summer to early winter. The flower spikes fade to brown and then grey and develop woody follicles bearing the winged seeds. Originally described by Antonio José Cavanilles in 1800, further collections of "B. marginata" were described as several separate species by Robert Brown in 1810. However, all were reclassified as a single species by George Bentham in 1870. No distinct subspecies have been recognised by "Banksia" expert Alex George, who nonetheless concedes that further work is needed.
Bald Rock National Park
Bald Rock National Park is a national park in northern New South Wales, Australia, just north of Tenterfield on the Queensland border. The border passes over the rock on the Western side. On the other side of the border national park continues as the Girraween National Park.
The park is named after its most prominent feature, Bald Rock, which is a large granite outcrop rising about 200 metres above the surrounding landscape. Measuring about 750 metres long and 500 metres wide this is the largest granite monolith in Australia. Access to the rock is provided by a sealed road into the park and walking tracks to the summit. Two tracks are marked, a steep one up the exposed face, or an easier gradient through bushland around the back. The Bungoona Walking Track, built in 1980, goes more gently up the eastern side of Bald Rock and winds through forest. It passes through some granite boulder formations, including an arch, covered in mosses, ferns and orchids. The summit offers panoramic views of the surrounding bushland, but vegetation on top prevents a full 360° view. The views are so expansive, mountains as far north as the Queensland/New South Wales border can be seen, such as Mount Barney, Mount Lindesay and Flinders Peak, and as far south as Mount MacKenzie, south of Tenterfield.
Australia (continent)
The continent of Australia, sometimes known in technical contexts by the names Sahul, Australinea or Meganesia to distinguish it from the country of Australia, consists of the land masses which sit on Australia's continental plate. This includes mainland Australia, Tasmania, and the island of New Guinea (comprising Papua New Guinea and two Indonesian provinces). Situated in the geographical region of Oceania, it is the smallest of the seven traditional continents in the English conception.
Colorado Plateau
Some sources also include the Tushar Mountain Plateau as part of the Colorado Plateau, but others do not. The mostly flat-lying sedimentary rock units that make up these plateaus are found in component plateaus that are between above sea level. A supersequence of these rocks is exposed in the various cliffs and canyons (including the Grand Canyon) that make up the Grand Staircase. Increasingly younger east-west trending escarpments of the Grand Staircase extend north of the Grand Canyon and are named for their color:Within these rocks are abundant mineral resources that include uranium, coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Study of the area's unusually clear geologic history (which is laid bare due to the arid and semiarid conditions) has greatly advanced that science.
Guillaume Le Testu
Suggestions that Le Testu may have mapped (or even visited) Australia are based on: first, his maps' depiction of a large island (or continent), south of Java, which Le Testu identified as the "Jave la Grande" ("Java Major" or "Great Java") mentioned by Marco Polo (and was otherwise known at the time as "Terra Australis") and second, Le Testu's incorporation in these maps of birds that resemble black swans and cassowaries, which are both native to Australia. However, he did not claim to have seen Jave la Grande in person and many cartographers at the time incorporated hypothetical, mythological or fantastic elements, a practice that is clearly also true of Le Testu. His maps also showed unicorns and monstrous creatures such as 200 metre long giant snakes, basilisks, satyrs, Blemmyes (headless humans) and Cynocephalics (dog-headed humans).
Seven Second Summits
The Seven Second Summits list follows the Seven Summits list created by Richard Bass, who chose the highest mountain of mainland Australia, Mount Kosciuszko (2,228 m), to represent the Australian continent's highest summit. Reinhold Messner proposed another list (the Messner or Carstensz list), replacing Mount Kosciuszko with Western New Guinea's Carstensz Pyramid, which is part of Indonesia (4,884 m). Following the Bass list, Mount Townsend is the second-highest summit (2,209 m) in Australia. According to the Messner list, Puncak Mandala (4,760 m) on New Guinea is the second highest of the Australian continent. Heights of mountain peaks in West Papua are poorly established, and Puncak Trikora has been listed as the second-highest summit on the island, but SRTM data do support a higher elevation for Mandala.
Australian brushturkey
The Australian brushturkey or Australian brush-turkey or gweela ("Alectura lathami"), also frequently called the scrub turkey or bush turkey, is a common, widespread species of mound-building bird from the family Megapodiidae found in eastern Australia from Far North Queensland to Eurobodalla on the south coast of New South Wales. The Australian brushturkey has also been introduced to Kangaroo Island in South Australia. It is the largest extant representative of the family Megapodiidae, and is one of three species to inhabit Australia.
Bulgo Sandstone
Often seen as a grey-green colour when exposed, the Bulgo sandstone contains a high level of particles of volcanic rocks, and is dissimilar to other Sydney sandstones, such as Hawkesbury sandstone and Newport Formation. The rock breaks down to create a relatively fertile clayey soil. These soils contribute to the rainforest growth in the northern Illawarra. Bulgo sandstone may be seen at the "figure eight" rock pool at Royal National Park and at Long Reef in the northern Beaches in Sydney. A fossil of the giant salamander (Bulgosuchus gargantua) was found at Long Reef.
Ningaloo Coast
The Ningaloo Coast is a World Heritage Site located in the north west coastal region of Western Australia. The heritage-listed area is located approximately north of Perth, along the East Indian Ocean. The distinctive Ningaloo Reef that fringes the Ningaloo Coast is long and is Australia's largest fringing coral reef and the only large reef positioned very close to a landmass.
Big Ben (Heard Island)
Big Ben is a volcanic massif that dominates the geography of Heard Island in the southern Indian Ocean. It is a composite cone with a diameter of approximately 25 kilometres. Its highest peak is Mawson Peak, which is 2,745 m above sea level. Much of it is covered by ice, including 14 major glaciers which descend from Big Ben to the sea. Big Ben is the highest mountain in Australian Territory, except for those claimed in the Australian Antarctic Territory. A smaller volcanic headland, the Laurens Peninsula, extends approximately 10 km to the northwest, created by a separate volcano, Mount Dixon; its highest point is Anzac Peak, at 715 m.
List of rocks in Western Australia, O-S
This is a list of rocks in Western Australia. It includes all gazetted rocks, boulders, pinnacles, crags, needles, pillars, rock formations, and tors in Western Australia, both inland and offshore. It does not include monoliths gazetted as mounts or hills, such as Mount Augustus.
Hornsby Plateau
The Hornsby Plateau is a sandstone plateau lying to the north of Sydney Harbour, which is cut by steep valleys. The North Shore and the Berowra Valley National Park are located on the Hornsby Plateau. Due to its hilly topography, it was slow to develop. It has two main sedimentary rock layers: Hawkesbury sandstone, consisting mostly of sandstone, but with some shale, and the overlying Ashfield shale.
Platycephalus laevigatus
Platycephalus laevigatus, the black flathead or rock flathead, is a large slender flathead with a small, narrow, slightly flattened head; corner of gill cover with two spines, upper longer than lower. The species only occurs in southern Australia.
List of rocks in Western Australia, T-Z
This is a list of rocks in Western Australia. It includes all gazetted rocks, boulders, pinnacles, crags, needles, pillars, rock formations, and tors in Western Australia, both inland and offshore. It does not include monoliths gazetted as mounts or hills, such as Mount Augustus.
Mount Claro rock-wallaby
The Mount Claro rock-wallaby ("Petrogale sharmani"), also known as Sharman's rock-wallaby, is a species of rock-wallaby found in northeastern Queensland, Australia. It is a member of a group of seven very closely related species also including Godman's rock-wallaby ("P. godmani") and Herbert's rock-wallaby ("P. herberti").
Dendrobium striolatum
Dendrobium striolatum, commonly known as the streaked rock orchid is a species of orchid endemic to eastern Australia. It is a small, usually lithophytic orchid with wiry stems, cylindrical leaves and flowering stems with one or two yellow, cream-coloured or greenish flowers with reddish stripes. It often grows on cliff faces in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.
Australian Wormy Chestnut
Australian Wormy Chestnut or Firestreak is a common name for lumber of Eucalyptus obliqua, Eucalyptus sieberi and Eucalyptus fastigata grown in Victoria, southern New South Wales, and Tasmania in Australia. It is a hardwood species commonly used in flooring applications.
Gibraltar Rock (Western Australia)
Gibraltar Rock is south of Perth, Western Australia. The rock is located in the Porongorups Range, which has thirteen total named peaks including Twin Peaks, The Devils Slide, Nancy Peak, Castle Rock, and Elephant Rock. From the peak of the rock, Albany and the Great Southern Ocean can be seen. Road access to the rock is from Bolganup Road and Scenic Drive.
Geology of Australia
The Tertiary saw the majority of Australian tectonism cease. Sparse examples of intraplate volcanism exist, for instance the Glasshouse Mountains in Queensland, which are Tertiary examples of a chain of small volcanic plugs which decrease in age to the south, where they result in ~10,000-year-old maar volcanoes and basalts of the Newer Volcanics in South Australia and Victoria.AUSTRALIA’S PLATE SETTINGGEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK OF AUSTRALIAMAPPING AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIAN LITHOSPHERE AUSTRALIA THROUGH TIME: TECTONIC EVOLUTION DEEP TIME
Australia (continent)
The continent includes a continental shelf overlain by shallow seas which divide it into several landmasses—the Arafura Sea and Torres Strait between mainland Australia and New Guinea, and Bass Strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania. When sea levels were lower during the Pleistocene ice age, including the Last Glacial Maximum about 18,000 BC, they were connected by dry land. During the past 10,000 years, rising sea levels overflowed the lowlands and separated the continent into today's low-lying arid to semi-arid mainland and the two mountainous islands of New Guinea and Tasmania.
Australia
Lying on the Indo-Australian Plate, the mainland of Australia is the lowest and most primordial landmass on Earth with a relatively stable geological history. The landmass includes virtually all known rock types and from all geological time periods spanning over 3.8 billion years of the Earth's history. The Pilbara Craton is one of only two pristine Archaean 3.6–2.7 Ga (billion years ago) crusts identified on the Earth.
Mount Taylor (Australian Capital Territory)
The rocks on Mount Taylor are from the Silurian age from 420 million years ago. They are acid volcanic rocks. On the top and western sides is a rock called ignimbrite. This was formed by massive volcanic explosions that ejected hot volcanic particles in the air that then fell to the ground. This collection of rocks is known as the Laidlaw Volcanics. On the northern slopes and lower eastern slopes the rock is rhyodacite. This is from the Deakin Volcanics. There is also a sill of porphyry intruded into the volcanic rocks on the east and south slopes. The rocks dip to the south west at an angle of 20°. This dip is perpendicular to the long extension of the mountain, showing that it is the strata in the rock that has determined the shape of the mountain.
Geography of Australia
Australia is the lowest, flattest, and oldest continental landmass on Earth and it has had a relatively stable geological history. Geological forces such as tectonic uplift of mountain ranges or clashes between tectonic plates occurred mainly in Australia's early history, when it was still a part of Gondwana. Its highest peak is Mount Kosciuszko at , which is relatively low in comparison to the highest mountains on other continents.
Tryal Rocks
Tryal Rocks are located at . They are northwest of the Montebello Islands, off the Australian mainland and part of the state of Western Australia.
Rock parrot
The rock parrot ("Neophema petrophila") is a parrot which is endemic to coastal South Australia, southern Western Australia, and that continent's offshore islands, including Rottnest Island. It is a small, predominantly olive-green parrot. Grass seeds form the bulk of its diet.
New Hebrides Plate
The New Hebrides Plate, sometimes called the Neo-Hebridean Plate, is a minor tectonic plate located in the Pacific Ocean near the island nation of Vanuatu. The plate is bounded on the southwest by the Indo-Australian Plate which is subducting below it. The New Hebrides Subduction Zone is extremely active, producing over 20 earthquakes of magnitude 7 or higher in just the past 25 years.
Commandment Rock
Commandment Rock is a large rock located in the Lane Cove National Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The site is home to rock engravings, both Aboriginal and European. An engraving of the Fifth Commandment on the rock gives it its name. It is reputed to have been carved in the late 19th century by a nearby resident, Thomas Tunbridge, as a punishment from his parents. Erosion has caused this engraving to be invisible today. Other engravings included a cannon, anchor, axe, sword, bow and arrow, and a crescent and "sunburst" motif, the only two Aboriginal engravings at the site. A sign posted near the rock depicts the engravings as they used to be.
Elephant Rocks (Western Australia)
Elephant Rocks is a sheltered beach in Western Australia, a few hundred metres east of Greens Pool. It is located about 15 km west from Denmark, in William Bay National Park. Its name is derived from a series of exposed rocks, which from several angles resembles a herd of elephants.s
Rapanui Rock
Rapanui, better known as The Shag Rock or simply "Shag Rock" was a notable sea stack which stood at the entrance of the Avon Heathcote Estuary near Christchurch, New Zealand. The boating channel into the estuary lies on the northern side of the rock. Although not used as a shipping port, the estuary is accessible to large yachts despite the bar and difficult tidal conditions. The rock stood close to the southern shore just above the low tide level. It was a prominent landmark on the road to Sumner until it crumbled in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The remains are still easily seen from the road and are now being referred to by some locals as "Shag Pile" (a pun referencing the style of carpet).
Natural history of Australia
Three areas of the Australian landmass that are made of Archaean rocks are more than 2.5 billion years old, among the oldest known rocks. These igneous and metamorphic rocks are found in the Yilgarn (West) and Pilbara (North) cratons in today's Western Australia and the Gawler (South) craton which makes up the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. During the Proterozoic, 2,500 to 545 Ma, continent building took place around the existing cratons; the accretions include sedimentary deposition of the banded iron formations and the formation of Australia's major orebodies - sources of gold, copper, lead, zinc, silver and uranium. These disparate landmasses are thought to have become associated by the tectonic collisions that formed the supercontinent Rodinia, between 1300 to 1100 Ma. Geological evidence suggests that the West Australian cratons collided first, followed by collision with the South Australian craton between ~830 and 750 Ma. The Centralian Superbasin formed the junction of the North, South and West cratons.
Australian bustard
The Australian bustard ("Ardeotis australis") is a large ground bird inhabiting grassland, woodland and open agricultural country across northern Australia and southern New Guinea. It is also commonly referred to as the plains turkey, and in Central Australia as bush turkey, particularly by Aboriginal people, though this name may also be used for the Australian brushturkey as well as the orange-footed scrubfowl.
Banksia marginata
"Banksia marginata" is found from Baradine and Gibraltar Range National Park in northern New South Wales, southwards into Victoria and South Australia, as well as across Tasmania. It is found on the major islands of Bass Strait, including King, Flinders and Cape Barren Islands. There is one report of a collection from the Springbrook Mountains southwest of Southport in southeastern Queensland. It is extremely rare in southwestern New South Wales. In Victoria, it is predominantly coastal or near-coastal east of Traralgon, but in New South Wales it is absent from coastal areas in the Sydney region. "Banksia marginata" often grew as a large tree on the basalt plains west of Melbourne, but has almost disappeared. In the vicinity of Adelaide, it was common in the western suburbs on old sand dunes behind the beach foredunes. It remains common in the Adelaide foothills. The annual rainfall over its distribution ranges from .
Diplodactylus granariensis
Diplodactylus granariensis, sometimes called the western stone gecko, wheat-belt stone gecko, or the giant stone gecko, is a gecko endemic to Australia.