Relict periglacial landforms at Clarks Junction, Otago

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Abstract
The Taieri Uplands of Otago have been regarded as a landscape formed by erosion in a temperate humid climate. However, studies of the regolith at Clarks Junction now indicate that the landscape is relict, and shaped largely by periglaciation during the last stage of the Otira glaciation. Cold climate features are described, and these form the basis for the time-stratigraphic interpretation. The development of landforms since the last stadial is described with the aid of diagrams. The sequence of events is as follows: (i) soil development occurred in the temperate climate of the interstadial period; (ii) cryoplanation resulted in deposition in the valleys and on the hillslopes during the cold stadial period — on the hillslopes the succession was schist gelifraction material, periglacial “loess” gelifraction material, and regional loess; (iii) the surface was partly stripped and redeposited as colluvium during the late stadial period; (iv) soil developed under tussock and streams degraded during the Post-glacial period. Thus the landscape may be regarded as polygenetic. The present temperate climate is now causing slow modification of the periglacial surfaces formed during the last stage of the Otira glaciation.

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