Glacial advances in the Rakaia Valley, New Zealand

Abstract

Re-alignment of the road near the Rakaia Gorge bridge (S82) has clearly exposed deposits of the Woodlands and younger glacial advances, and their erosional or faulted relationships. Renewed geomorphological mapping in the area indicates that the Tui Creek Advance was in three phases, not one as previously recognised, so that it may have the status of a full glaciation. New details of the deposits and geo-morphology related to the three phases of the last (Acheron) advance of the Otira Glaciation indicate greater aggradation than previously supposed, and the formation of a complex of lakes during fluctuations of the glacier.