A debris ridge in Park Valley, Tararua Range, New Zealand, as evidence for pleistocene glaciation

Abstract

Geomorphologic and sedimentologic investigations in Park Valley, Tararua Range, have identified the presence of a lateral moraine toward the head of the valley. This section of Park Valley is U‐shaped, southwest facing with the elongate ridge situated on the true right (northwestern) side of the valley. A variety of approaches is used to test the possible process origins of the ridge, including topographic and spatial positioning, sedimentology, and paleoclimatic extrapolations. Results indicate the ridge consists of glacial diamict deposited as a lateral moraine, supporting recent hypotheses about late Pleistocene glaciation and erosional development of valleys and cirques of this sector of the range.

Keywords:

• Tararua Range
• lateral moraine
• protalus rampart
• paleoclimate