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Abstract
Skeleton Islands are a variety of the class of islands resulting from subsidence of dissected land, subcategory 4a of a classification of islands here offered. Such islands are characterised by development of a sprawling outline with a narrow axial ridge from which slender lateral spurs, or ribs, extend more or less at right angles. Extreme skeletonisation is associated with development before a final drowning, or redrowning, of amphitheatre heads in valleys already heading in the main divide. This may be a climatically induced change of the valley form related, in the case of the New Zealand example, Arapawa Island, to cryergic (periglacial) activity in the Pleistocene glacial ages.
Kakeroma Island (Ryukyu Group), an example of a skeleton island described by W. M. Davis, has quite possibly a history different from that of Arapawa Island as regards both the development of the relief of the subsiding lands and. being in a low latitude, the possibly climatic process responsible for shaping its now submerged valley heads and thus emaciating the ribs of the island.
Type
Journal Article
Type of thesis
Series
Earth Science Journal
Citation
Cotton, C.A. (1969). Skeleton Islands of New Zealand and elsewhere. Earth Science Journal, 3(2), 61-76.
Date
1969
Publisher
Waikato Geological Society, The University of Waikato
Degree
Supervisors
Rights
© 1969 Waikato Geological Society, The University of Waikato. All items in Research Commons are provided only to permit fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study. They are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.