Landslip Hill, Pukerau, Gore District, Southland Region, New Zealandi

Regional Level Types
Landslip Hill	Hill
Pukerau	- not defined -
Gore District	District
Southland Region	Region
New Zealand	Country

As the name suggests, Landslip Hill is a major slumping, 1.5 kilometres north-east of Pukerau. It is noted amongst geologists and collectors for a rich variety of well preserved Late Oligocene to Miocene plant fossils. These include stems, roots, rootlets, logs, leaves, and fruits, often preserving delicate structures.

New Zealand contains many sites exhibiting plant and marine fossils. These sites are beyond the scope of Mindat which relates to mineral specimens. However as Landslip Hill has been a major collecting site for fossils in the past, it has been added as a geology source. In this respect we refer you to the Lindqvist reference below, which is a detailed study on the geology of the location.

Very briefly, the fossils are found in silcrete as part of the Gore Lignite Measures. The sequence at the site has been divided into quartz pebble conglomerate, stratified coarse grained sandstone, planar laminated fine and medium grained sandstone, mottled sandstone with pervasive root structures, and muddy conglomerate.

The secondary silica consists of spherulitic and granular chalcedony, microcrystalline quartz, and syntaxial quartz overgrowths, in total several metres thick. Scattered sarsens include silicified tree trunks. The silcrete forms erosion resistant areas on the upper scarp line.

The silcrete bed is rubbly pale reddish brown overlying poorly exposed non-cemented quartoze sandstone, sandy to muddy conglomerate, and kaolinised mudstone. A further slump just to the north is called Charters Road Slump, with silcrete here greyish-brown to white, with locally prominent vertical joints 0.5 to 4.0 metres apart.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References