There
are many strange rock formations in Australia.
Australia is one of the oldest and geologically most stable continents
in the world.
Away from the plate boundaries, volcanoes don't erupt and
new mountains are not built.
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This geological stability has given
erosion a lot of time to uncover some of the most impressive and
strange rock formations in the world. Uluru - The Most Famous Rock Formation in Australia
The most famous of them is Uluru, aka Ayers Rock - the "big red rock in
central Australia" only reached by an airplane or by a car. Uluru is
the world's largest monolith, and it's made of a kind of sandstone
called arkose.
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Kata Tjuta - The Second Most Famous Rock Formation in
Australia
Kata Tjuta on the other hand is made of conglomerates, with rounded
boulders of granite, basalt and gneiss, and some sandstone, rhyolite
and metamorphic rocks. Both Ukluru and kata Tjuta (and the nearby Mt
Connor) are sedimentary rocks deposited close to the end of Precambrian
era. During Cambrian period, more sediments were laid and Uluru and
Kata Tjuta were buried. During Devonian and Carboniferous periods the
rocks were folded and faulted, and then uplifted. The overlying rocks
have since been eroded, exposing Uluru and Kata Tjuta.
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Other Strange Rock Formations in Northern Territory:
Devil's
Marbles
Devils Marbles, the round rocks balancing in a heap on top of each
other near Tennant Creek in Northern Territory, are easy to access from
Stuart Highway and very popular on photos. The local Aboriginal People
called them the eggs of Rainbow Serpent, but geologically they are a
dome of intrusive red granite that has been exposed by erosion and then
weathered into these impressive rounded boulders.
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Wilpena Pound - Probably the Most Impressive Rock
Formation in
Australia
Wilpena Pound in Flinders Ranges in South Australia is a very large and
impressive rock formation. It is a broad fold in sedimentary rocks,
which were laid in the end of Precambrian, just like Uluru and Kata
Tjuta. There is an important difference though - as opposed to Uluru
and Kata Tjuta, in a thin layer deposited about 550 million years ago,
there are fossils of multi-celled animals. They are still soft-bodied -
yet about 20 million years away the Cambrian Explosion where the first
animals with skeletons evolved. But the huge significance of Wilpena
Pound is that they are the first clear evidence of multicellular
organisms on the planet - nowhere else is that layer so clearly
represented.
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Remarkable Rocks - Strange Rock Formations in South
Australia
Remarkable Rocks in the Flinders Chase National Park on Kangaroo island
in South Australia are some of the strangest rocks in Australia. I
haven't found reliable enough references to state what rock they are
made of, but sure enough they have been eroded by wind and rainwater
into some very unusual shapes. Remarkable Rocks are red, but not
because of the iron oxides, which is the case with Uluru and many other
Australian rocks; but because of a species of red lichen that grows on
these rocks.
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Murphy's Haystacks - Other Strange Rock Formations in
South
Australia
Murphy's Haystacks, the strange rock formations on the Eyre Peninsula
in South Australia, are made of about 1.5 million years old pink
granite which is quite extensive in the area. The boulders have been
formed by uneven weathering only about 100,000 years ago. About 30,000
years ago they were covered by a sand dune, which has now eroded away.
As with Remarkable Rocks, the reddish colour of Murphy's Haystacks is
caused by a species of lichen.
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Nullarbor Coast
Nullarbor Plain is an endless treeless desert in south-western SA and
south-eastern WA. There are no remarkably strange rock formations in
that desert, but the coast of it is aligned by amazing cliffs made of
Tertiary limestone.
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Strange Rock Formations in Western Australia - Wave Rock
Wave
Rock in south-western WA is an amazing, 15m high and 110m long rock
formation that resembles a wave. It is made of granite and its shape
has been formed by wind and water erosion since the rock has been
exposed about 60 million years ago.
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The Pinnacles Desert - Surreal Rock Formations
The Pinnacles Desert north of Perth, in Nambung National Park in
Western Australia is one strange place to be. It is a desert of yellow
sands and surreal limestone pinnacles that have been exposed by
erosion. There are different theories about how these pinnacles formed
but sure it is a different sight and a great place to take photos.
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Bungle Bungles - The Strange Rock Formations in Kimberleys
Bungle Bungles in the eastern Kimberleys is another great mountain
range with its spectacular sandstone domes which have alternating
orange and grey stripes. It is quite a remote place.
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Victoria's Most Famous Rock Formations - The Twelve
Apostles
The famous Twelve Apostles on the coast of western Victoria are about
50m high limestone stacks that have been, and still are, eroded by
waves. Consequently, many have collapsed since they were named 12
apostles - at the time of writing only eight were left. They are a
popular attraction on the famous Great Ocean Road, and well worth a
visit.
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Tasmania's Most famous Rock Formation - Cradle Mountain
Tasmania is different from mainland Australia when it comes to geology,
due to the presence of dolerite. Tasmania has the world's largest areas
of this mafic intrusive igneous rock, which forms some great rock
formations. Cradle Mountain is the most famous of them.
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Tasmania's Most Impressive Rock Formation - Tasman
Peninsula
Less famous but even more impressive than the Cradle Mountain, Tasman
Peninsula has got some amazing dolerite formations. Dark, mafic rocks
are normally not common in the Earth's crust, where light-coloured,
felsic rocks such as granitoids are much more common. Mafic rocks such
as basalts and dolerite are more common in the Earth's mantle but end
up on the Earth's surface through volcanic activity.
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Blue Mountains' Famous Rock Formation - The Three Sisters
Three sisters in Blue Mountains is probably the easiest reached of all
the strange rock formations - only one hour's drive from central
Sydney. They are very famous, but moderately impressive, compared to
other, more remote strange rock formations. They are erosional remnants
of the Blue Mountains sandstone escarpments which were deposited in
early Triassic.
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Other Strange Rock Formations in NSW - Mungo National Park
Mungo National Park in the inland NSW is known for its arcaeological
significance, but it has also got the 33km-long eroded sand dune - the
Walls of China. The area used to be an ancient lake bed, a part of a
chain of lakes between Willandra Creek and Lachlan River. Since the
lakes dried up about 14,000 years ago, wind has been eroding the
fragile sand dunes and left behind some amazing outcrops.
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Queensland's "Devil's Marbles" - Girraween national Park
Queensland
hasn't got as many great strange rock formations as most other states,
however in Girraween National Park in south-eastern Queensland, is an
analogue of Northern Territory's Devil's Marbles, also made of granite,
even though duller in colour. They lack the red oxides that Devil's
Marbles have, and are consequently grey.
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Eastern Australia's Volcanic Belt: Glass House Mountains
But what the central and western states don't have is the eastern
Austraslia's volcanic belt, which is responsible for the Great Dividing
Range along the eastern coast that brings the rains, and the younger,
more fertile black soils, than in the rest of Australia. The areas
around this belt bear consequently thick eucalypt forests, and show
some dramatic volcanic peaks seen nowhere else in the country.
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Queensland's Great Gorges: Carnarvon and Lawn Hill
Queensland has also got some great gorges where there is enough water
to support the ancient remnant pockets of rainforest that once covered
the whole continent. Both have formed by rivers carving into ancient
sandstone. Carnarvon Gorge is surrounded by white sandstone cliffs,
while Lawn Hill Gorge is red.
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Remnants of Ancient Coral Reef - Chillagoe
Chillagoe, a small country town in northern Queensland, is surrounded
by limestone bluffs, deposited by coral reef 400 million years ago when
the area was the bottom of a tropical sea. There are limestone bluffs
everywhere, one of the most famous ones is the Balancing Rock.
Note:
This site uses
British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will
find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all
correct in the language used in Australia.
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