Manawatu anticlines - some of the world's best
Manawatu in the North Island of New Zealand is home to a number of interesting geographical features.
The Pohangina, Mount Stewart and Feilding anticlines - blocks of deep, old, hard rock which having pushed upwards, are now slowly bending softer overlying rocks into large folds. The Manawatu anticlines are considered some of the best examples in the world of what could prove to be the starting point of new mountain ranges.
Clearly visible from the road, the 30 kilometre Pohangina Anticline runs alongside the southern Ruahine Range, which about half a million years ago, may have begun life as an anticline.
Rising at a rate of at least one millimetre a year, the Pohangina Anticline is growing rapidly in geological terms. Rainwater running down the sides of the anticline has begun eroding small valleys draining away from the crest of the fold towards the Oroua Valley in the west, and the Pohangina Valley in the east.
Well-preserved anticlines are uncommon worldwide and especially anticlines that sit adjacent to well-used public roads as several in the Manawatu do.
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