Oamaru volcano - a podcast by Whitestone Geopark

Geopark - Sasha M – Oamaru Volcano 2019

Real Radio: Time to Geopark once again. And with the Geoeducator Sasha Morriss. Now this week, we're going to talk about the differences of some of the structures that you can see around town.

Geoeducator: Yes that's right.  So just when people are out and about around town, I thought it would be quite interesting for people to look at the differences in maybe the bridges, and the buildings and walls.  A lot of them are made from local stone. So the idea goes that when you're building something, you don't tend to transport materials a great distance if you can help it. So you tend to try and use materials that are local to the area that you are in.  I was at the gardens actually the other day, and one of the bridges that goes from the playground across into the gardens, you'll see that there's a nice kind of arched wall going across and it's gray in color. The stone with really sparkly black bits in it. It's a really hard jagged - if you lean on it, you know, it could kind of cut your arm. It's quite jagged. It's very solid material. Now it is actually volcanic blocks and there's quite a few volcanic blocks that have been used around the gardens to build various structures. Some of the walls around the schools, you see the same material and you kind of start to think, now, where did it come from? And this is how a geologist would think where does this rock come from. What's the story behind that? And I can tell you now, there is a volcano very close to where we are recording here and that is the South Hill is an old volcano. And so a lot of that would probably have been transported from that area. There's a brochure that you can actually purchase from Vanished World. And it tells you about the volcano and its series of eruptions that would have started off as an an under the same volcano that's originally erupted up lava into limestone. It's created beautiful pillow lavas. And then you've had ash and various other eruptions later on. So some of the structures we can see around town gives us an idea of the geology that's around. Another one will be a lot of the bridge arches in town - down Thames St you'll see going across the river there are white. And they're actually made from the limestone, just like a lot of the building facades are as well. So, again, not traveled particularly far and quite malleable to make things from.

Real Radio: Ok. So you say that there's a brochure that you can get from Vanished World. Tell us a wee bit about that.

Geoeducator: Yes. I've got a brochure here that I'm looking at. And it's called 'The Oamaru Volcano'.  You can purchase this for $6.50 at Vanished World. And it talks in particular about the Cape, the volcano at the Cape, and just the different eruptions that occurred there and different types of eruptions cause different kinds of formations to be formed.

Real Radio: I would imagine this would make a bit of an ideal stocking filler or gift for a budding geologist.

Geoeducator: Oh, look, absolutely. Yes, there's lots of information in this booklet. They've got other booklets available there, one on the Moeraki Boulders as well and several others as well. And yes, completely. They have been put out by GNS, which is 'Geological and Nuclear Sciences'. Really interesting brochure for any budding geologist or people just interested and the environment around.

Real Radio: Cool look, thanks very much Sasha. We'll catch up with you again next time.

Geoeducator: I'll look forward to it. Thank you.

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