Misplaced Pages

#677322

43-756: The Pisa Range is a mountain range in Central Otago , in the South Island of New Zealand . It lies on the western shore of the man-made Lake Dunstan and overlooks the town of Cromwell . Its highest point, Mount Pisa , is 1,963 m (6,440 feet). The massif , which includes the Pisa and Criffel Ranges, is deeply dissected by Luggate Creek to the north and the Roaring Meg to the south, both of which have seen historical alluvial gold mining . Rising over 1,700 m (5,600 ft) above Lake Dunstan,

86-1053: A Celtic etymology, the Oxford English Dictionary lists no cognates to the Old English word in either the Breton or Cornish languages (the Scottish Gaelic tòrr is thought to derive from the Old English word). It is therefore accepted that the English word Tor derives from the Old Welsh word tẁrr or twr , meaning a cluster or heap. Tors are landforms created by the erosion and weathering of rock; most commonly granites , but also schists , dacites , dolerites , ignimbrites , coarse sandstones and others. Tors are mostly less than 5 meters (16 ft) high. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain their origin and this remains

129-439: A New Zealand standard work, and a series of works including Fog at Stan Cotter's . 44°52′S 169°12′E  /  44.867°S 169.200°E  / -44.867; 169.200 Mountain range Mountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys . Individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geologic structure or petrology . They may be

172-627: A mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes , for example thrust sheets , uplifted blocks , fold mountains, and volcanic landforms resulting in a variety of rock types . Most geologically young mountain ranges on the Earth's land surface are associated with either the Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide belt . The Pacific Ring of Fire includes the Andes of South America, extends through

215-621: A number of the early settlers to the Otago region came from. The Criffel is a hill of 570 m (1,870 ft), significantly smaller than its New Zealand eponym, Criffel Peak , at 1,282 m (4,206 ft). The first settlers in the region were the Māori as they travelled through Central Otago en route to the West Coast on pounamu expeditions, as well as in search of seasonal food resources. Early Māori archaeological sites are concentrated on

258-632: A result, some 23,000 ha (57,000 acres) on the Pisa Range have been relinquished from farm grazing and are now managed by the Department of Conservation as public conservation land and reserves. Completion of further tenure reviews is likely to result in the entire range crest of the two ranges returning to full Crown ownership. The long-term monitoring within the GLORIA network revealed just how slow recovery rates of degraded upland ecosystems on

301-549: A topic of discussion among geologists and geomorphologists , and physical geographers . It is considered likely that tors were created by geomorphic processes that differed widely in type and duration according to regional and local differences in climate and rock types. For example, the Dartmoor granite was emplaced around 280 million years ago. When the cover rocks eroded away it was exposed to chemical and physical weathering processes. Where joints are closely spaced,

344-606: Is a broad, gently sloping undulatory dome, in places up to 8 km (5.0 mi) wide, falling steeply to the Clutha Valley floor. The Criffel Range forms part of the greater Pisa Range fault block mountain range that separates the Cardrona Valley from the Upper Clutha Valley. Elevation ranges from approximately 450 to 1,963 m (1,476 to 6,440 ft) at the highest point. The aerial extent of

387-672: Is also known by geomorphologists as either a castle koppie or kopje , is a large, free-standing rock outcrop that rises abruptly from the surrounding smooth and gentle slopes of a rounded hill summit or ridge crest. In the South West of England , the term is commonly also used for the hills themselves – particularly the high points of Dartmoor in Devon and Bodmin Moor in Cornwall . Although English topographical names often have

430-538: Is at work while the mountains are being uplifted until the mountains are reduced to low hills and plains. The early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an example. As the uplift was occurring some 10,000 feet (3,000 m) of mostly Mesozoic sedimentary strata were removed by erosion over the core of the mountain range and spread as sand and clays across the Great Plains to

473-551: The Annamite Range . If the definition of a mountain range is stretched to include underwater mountains, then the Ocean Ridge forms the longest continuous mountain system on Earth, with a length of 65,000 kilometres (40,400 mi). The position of mountain ranges influences climate, such as rain or snow. When air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools, producing orographic precipitation (rain or snow). As

SECTION 10

#1732780227678

516-524: The Crown Range , Cardrona, Luggate and Cromwell. The Waiorau Snow Farm features 55 km (34 mi) of trails, a conference centre has accommodation for about 60 people. It is located on the Pisa range close to Cardrona , at an altitude of approx 1,600 m. The area is used for cross country skiing in the winter and during the summer months for altitude training with trails climbing out to 2000m. The proximity of Wānaka (275m) and Queenstown (310m) and

559-575: The Mithrim Montes and Doom Mons on Titan, and Tenzing Montes and Hillary Montes on Pluto. Some terrestrial planets other than Earth also exhibit rocky mountain ranges, such as Maxwell Montes on Venus taller than any on Earth and Tartarus Montes on Mars . Jupiter's moon Io has mountain ranges formed from tectonic processes including the Boösaule , Dorian, Hi'iaka and Euboea Montes . Tor (rock formation) A tor , which

602-848: The North American Cordillera , the Aleutian Range , on through Kamchatka Peninsula , Japan , Taiwan , the Philippines , Papua New Guinea , to New Zealand . The Andes is 7,000 kilometres (4,350 mi) long and is often considered the world's longest mountain system. The Alpide belt stretches 15,000 km across southern Eurasia , from Java in Maritime Southeast Asia to the Iberian Peninsula in Western Europe , including

645-842: The Rangitata Orogeny . The schist in Central Otago has a well-defined pervasive schistosity , with shallow dips defining the broad regional-scale warps in schistosity caused during Miocene deformation (the Kaikoura orogeny ). The warped geometries are antiformal over mountain ranges and synformal under the intervening basins. Associated reverse faulting (the Otago fault system ) along the southeastern flanks of many Central Otago mountain ranges (i.e. Taieri Range , Lammermoor Range , Rock and Pillar Range , Rough Ridge , Raggedy Range , Dunstan Mountains , Pisa Range) gives rise to

688-581: The 20th Century. Around 2,000 t oz (62.2 kg) of gold was produced per year, although the figures are uncertain, as much of it went undeclared. The Criffel Diggings goldfield was the last to be discovered in the Otago Region, some 25 years after gold was discovered in Gabriel's Gully . At around 1,200 to 1,350 m (3,940 to 4,430 ft) elevation, the Criffel Diggings are also one of

731-567: The Cardrona River to 1,500 mm (59 in) at the crest of the Pisa Range. Snow lies above 1,000 m (3,300 ft) for much of the winter, persisting well into the summer months at high altitude. On the eastern and northern flanks of the range some forest and shrubland remnants are present. The southern flanks (Kawarau) support extensive shrublands characterised by a high component of exotic species. The western (Cardrona Valley) faces are largely free of any woody vegetation. Some of

774-596: The Central Otago landscape. John Turnbull Thomson and Alexander Garvie's naming of the schist tor on Mount Pisa was so-named because of its similarity to the Leaning Tower of Pisa . The 26 m (85 ft) Obelisk or Kopuwai is a nearby similar schist tor on the Old Man Range . Tertiary sediments of the Manuherikia Group and Maori Bottom Formation were deposited by fluvial systems across

817-530: The Kawerau Gorge, Gentle Annie, Roaring Meg, Tuohys Gully and the Cardrona Valley. These sites include sluicings, dray tracks, huts, tent sites, dams, race complexes and sluice pits. These gravels have been mined at the high fields of Criffel and Fatboys and along a fault line in the upper Roaring Meg. As well as the two major gold-bearing creeks there are terraces of stranded materials all round

860-651: The Pisa Range are botanically significant, including cushionfields on patterned ground, alpine tors , alpine fescue tussocklands, snow banks, herb seepages, native shrublands and forest remnants. In 1994 the New Zealand Government sought to determine the extent of degradation of high-country pastoral leases which subsequently lead to a tenure review . Those pastoral high-country ranges with more vulnerable ecology, suffering from extensive degradation and with significant ecosystem services were exchanged with more productive, generally lower-elevation lands. As

903-469: The Pisa Range has been. The crest of the Pisa Range was used for extensive merino sheep summer grazing, in combination with intermittent burning. This continued to 2012 when tenure review brought this detrimental land-use practice to a halt. The average soil organic matter recovery rate in the South Island high-country is estimated to be 35 years, but for heavily degraded areas, such as the Pisa Range,

SECTION 20

#1732780227678

946-572: The Pisa Range is the gateway to the Upper Clutha Valley . From land settlement to goldrushes, from orchards to the rising of Lake Dunstan and now to the coming of the grapes, the area has seen massive change in the past 150 years. The Pisa Range is the highest of the fault-block mountains characteristic of the Central Otago region, and one of the most distinctive land forms and ecological systems in New Zealand. The summit landscape

989-627: The air descends on the leeward side, it warms again (following the adiabatic lapse rate ) and is drier, having been stripped of much of its moisture. Often, a rain shadow will affect the leeward side of a range. As a consequence, large mountain ranges, such as the Andes, compartmentalize continents into distinct climate regions . Mountain ranges are constantly subjected to erosional forces which work to tear them down. The basins adjacent to an eroding mountain range are then filled with sediments that are buried and turned into sedimentary rock . Erosion

1032-591: The basin and range topography of parallel ridges and basins. During the Cretaceous , regional uplift and erosion brought the Textural Zone IV schists to the surface, and an extensive low-relief surface was produced over the entire region. The tops of the ranges in many places are still represented by this erosion surface, often called the Otago Peneplain , though a more recent interpretation of

1075-485: The east. This mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing uplift. The removal of such a mass from the core of the range most likely caused further uplift as the region adjusted isostatically in response to the removed weight. Rivers are traditionally believed to be the principal cause of mountain range erosion, by cutting into bedrock and transporting sediment. Computer simulation has shown that as mountain belts change from tectonically active to inactive,

1118-596: The erosion surface. Once covering most or all of the Central Otago region, these sediments have been stripped off the rising mountain ranges and are now preserved only in the basins. Many of these sediments contained gold, leading to numerous gold rushes in Central Otago. The Pisa Range, and specifically Mount Pisa, was the name given in 1857 by the Chief Surveyor of the Otago Province , John Turnbull Thomson and his assistant Alexander Garvie . Mount Pisa

1161-465: The highest in New Zealand. Up until recently, the Pisa District was primarily farm land. The larger stations on the Pisa Range include (but are not limited to) Mount Pisa Station, Locharburn Station, Waitiri Station, Eastbourne Station, Waiorau Station and Criffel Station. Mt Pisa Station has a long and continuous history o the Pisa Range, with its original homestead being built in 1865. The farm

1204-846: The large crystals in the granite readily disintegrate to form a sandy regolith known locally as growan . This is readily stripped off by solifluction or surface wash when not protected by vegetation, notably during prolonged cold phases during the Quaternary ice ages – periglaciation . Where joints happen to be unusually widely spaced, core blocks can survive and remain above the weathering surface, developing into tors. These can be monolithic, as at Haytor and Blackingstone Rock, but are more usually subdivided into stacks , often arranged in avenues. Each stack may include several tiers or pillows , which may become separated: rocking pillows are called logan stones. These stacks are vulnerable to frost action and often collapse leaving trails of blocks down

1247-467: The lower flanks of the Pisa Range and include Moa ovens with associated Moa bones (e.g. near Luggate and Gibbston Flat ). Gold mining occurred along a line of gold-bearing gravel deposits stretching from the Criffel Range up to Mt Pisa. The area contains a myriad of gold mining sites dating from 1885 up until the early 1900s. Key remnants can be found on the Criffel Range, Lower Luggate Creek,

1290-474: The most extensive remaining woodlands are protected as scientific reserves in the vicinity of Luggate Creek and the Lochar Burn. Mid-slopes generally support short tussockland which, with increasing altitude, yield to a discontinuous band of snow tussock. High alpine cushionfields, fell fields, blue tussocklands and scree pavements cover much of the broad summit plateau. Many of the vegetation communities on

1333-656: The range is defined by the Clutha River / Lake Dunstan to the north and east, while the Cardrona River and Kawarau River lie on the western and southern boundaries, respectively. There are two primary catchment areas which drain to the north and south. Luggate Creek flows into the Clutha River from the northern end of the range (at Luggate ), while the Roaring Meg flows into the Kawarau River at

Pisa Range - Misplaced Pages Continue

1376-619: The ranges of the Himalayas , Karakoram , Hindu Kush , Alborz , Caucasus , and the Alps . The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest , which is 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) high. Mountain ranges outside these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera , Appalachians , Great Dividing Range , East Siberians , Altais , Scandinavians , Qinling , Western Ghats , Vindhyas , Byrrangas , and

1419-443: The rate is even slower than that with the recovery rate of cushion plants (and subsequent soil formation) being no more than 5% over a decade. The Pisa Range is a frequent subject in the art of painter Grahame Sydney , who lives near Cambrians . Sydney lived briefly on Mount Pisa Station while he taught at Cromwell District High School in the early 1970s. Of particular significance is his painting of Rozzie at Pisa , which has become

1462-627: The rate of erosion drops because there are fewer abrasive particles in the water and fewer landslides. Mountains on other planets and natural satellites of the Solar System, including the Moon , are often isolated and formed mainly by processes such as impacts, though there are examples of mountain ranges (or "Montes") somewhat similar to those on Earth. Saturn 's moon Titan and Pluto , in particular, exhibit large mountain ranges in chains composed mainly of ices rather than rock. Examples include

1505-656: The skirts of the Pisa Range, in the Kawarau Gorge, along the Cardrona Valley (notably the Criffel Edge), Mid Run on the north face of the Criffel Range and along the Clutha terraces, especially at Gravelly Gully and around Lowburn. Gold on the Criffel Range was discovered in 1883 by a small group of miners led by Cardrona miner, farmer, and musterer , John Halliday . The Halliday party struggled for two years before they managed to discover any significant finds at what

1548-406: The slopes called clitter or clatter . Weathering has also given rise to circular "rock basins" formed by the accumulation of water and repeated freezing and thawing. An example is found at Kes Tor on Dartmoor. Dating of 28 tors on Dartmoor showed that most are surprisingly young, less than 100,000 years of surface exposure, with none over 200,000 years old. They probably emerged at the start of

1591-546: The southern end of the range. Numerous alpine tarns occupy cirque basins , the largest of which is Lake McKay at 0.03 km (0.012 sq mi) and 1,692 m (5,551 ft) elevation. The Pisa Range forms part of the characteristic basin and range topography throughout Central Otago . The basement rock is formed from the Haast Schist Group , grey quartzofeldspathic metagreywacke interlayered with micaceous meta-argillite and greenschist formed during

1634-586: The surface argues for it to be called the Waipounamu Erosion Surface . This is what gives rise to the broad smooth domal surface at the crest of the Pisa Range. Schist tors or rock pillars, have been left exposed, potentially as remnants of more resistant rock resulting from the Waipounamu Erosion Surface. Though their formation is not well understood, they often occur as large rocky outcrops and are characteristic of

1677-563: The terraces at the foot of the range. Some take their name directly from the Pisa Range itself. Most orchards and vineyards occupy the sandy gravels to the east of the Pisa Range, though several vineyards are located to the north near Queensbury and Cardrona. Numerous trails cross the Pisa Range, many of which are publicly accessible via the Pisa Range Conservation Area. Trails are typically 4-wheel drive only, but offer hiking and mountain biking opportunities linking

1720-702: The training options around these two towns makes the Snow Farm one of the best locations in the Southern Hemisphere for a live high, train low training regime. The Waiorau Snow Farm borders the Southern Hemisphere Proving Grounds , a vehicle testing facility. Both venues use the same access road on the western flank of the Pisa Range. The Pisa Range has a dry sub-continental climate, somewhat typical of Central Otago. Annual rainfall ranges from 600 mm (24 in) at

1763-516: Was so named because of the fancied resemblance of a rock to the Leaning Tower of Pisa . On their sketch chart it was shown as Pesa (itself the name of a river in Tuscany ). The Māori name of Mount Pisa is Taraputa , named for Tara Putakitaki , an early Kāti Māmoe chief. Pisa is pronounced Pie-zer by the locals. The name Criffel originates in Dumfries and Galloway , Scotland , where

Pisa Range - Misplaced Pages Continue

1806-592: Was subdivided following the First World War as part of the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act . Today, Pisa Station is a 4,691 ha (11,590 acres) sheep and cattle farm that has been in the same family since 1924. Sheep and cattle grazing continue to constitute the greatest land use of the Pisa Range (aerially), despite continued tenure reviews . Whilst not strictly on the Pisa Range itself, numerous stone fruit orchards and vineyards carpet

1849-482: Was to become the Criffel Diggings ( 44°47′00″S 169°09′25″E  /  44.78333°S 169.15694°E  / -44.78333; 169.15694 ). By 1885 around fifty miners were working the diggings and between them, they had sold 1,100 oz (31 kg) in the previous season. Mining continued into the 1890s with 27 miners taking 700 t oz (21.8 kg) in 1893. Mining ended in the first decade of

#677322