Showing posts with label Moeraki Boulders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moeraki Boulders. Show all posts

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Moeraki Boulders

Now the explanation in Portuguese:
Essas pedras enormes sao os chamados 'Moeraki Boulders'. Ha 60 milhoes de anos a Peninsula de Otago (Ilha Sul da Nova Zelandia) estava de baixo d'agua. Essas pedras se formaram e se desprenderam das montanhas que hoje estao ao longo da praia, mas que estavam tambem no fundo do mar no passado.

Moeraki Boulders

These spherical stones are huge! They are called 'The Moeraki Boulders' and are found along Koekohe Beach near Moeraki, on New Zealand's Otago coast. They were formed when the Otago Peninsula was under water some 60 million years ago. They are grey-coloured septarian concretions which have been exposed through shoreline erosion from black mudstone coastal cliffs just by the beach.

The boulders weigh several tonnes and are up to three metres in diametre.

Maori legend tells that the boulders fell off into the water from the legendary canoe, the Araiteuru.