The Significance of subsurface water as a geomorphic agent in an area of the Greywacke Ranges near Whitehall

Abstract

The area chosen for study is situated in the Whitehall district approximately 7 ½ miles ENE of Cambridge at GR N66/106378 (Figure 1). Recent mass movement features on part of the south and southeast-facing slopes of a valley that is tributary to the Karapiro Stream, and thence the Waikato River, were studied in some detail, but reference is also made to specific features in the area draining to the east. The southwest-facing slopes, with a relative relief of nearly 500 feet, rise to about 1,200 feet a.s.1., where a plateau-like surface dissected by broad mass movement gullies, slopes gradually to the east.