What caused the Southern Alps?

Like the Alpsthe AlpsThe French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as the Mont Blanc massif, are shared with Switzerland and Italy.

When did the Southern Alps start to form?

These mountains are mainly composed of hard sandstone and mudstone, collectively known as “greywacke”, of Mesozoic age, but the southern and western parts of the Southern Alps are formed of schist. The uplift of these ranges began about 15 million years ago and has accelerated in the last few million years.

What caused the Alpine Fault?

The Alpine Fault is called a strike slip or transform fault. The Australian plate is sliding horizontally towards the north-east, at the same time as the Pacific plate is pushing up, forming the Southern Alps. The mountains are rising at 7 millimetres a year, but erosion wears them down at a similar rate.

What boundary caused the Alps?

The North part of the African plate collides with the European plate and is thrust over the European plate. This is the start of the formation of the Alps which grows by 1000m per million years.

What process is continually creating the Southern Alps?

Uplift: tectonic plates

As they collide, the plates push up the land, forming mountains. The Southern Alps are one of the most rapidly rising mountain ranges in the world. The total uplift in the Aoraki/Mt Cook region during the past two to three million years could be as much as 20,000 metres.

How were the Southern Alps formed for kids?

New Zealand straddles the boundary between the Pacific and Australian plates and when these plates collide, they push up the land forming the mountains that we know today. The plates are constantly moving which result in the constant change of the Southern Alps.

How was NZ created?

About 540 million years ago, New Zealand was being formed on the eastern edge of the supercontinent Gondwana. Over millions of years, rivers carried sediments to the sea, and offshore volcanoes deposited ash on the sea floor.

Is New Zealand sinking?

Parts of New Zealand are sinking at faster rates than others and rising faster, a scientist says. The just-published tectonic research provides new information about how different parts of New Zealand are either rising or subsiding in relation to the centre of the earth.

Who Built New Zealand?

The Dutch. The first European to arrive in New Zealand was the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1642. The name New Zealand comes from the Dutch ‘Nieuw Zeeland’, the name first given to us by a Dutch mapmaker.

Is there a Zealand?

Zealand, Danish Sjælland, largest and most populous island of Denmark, lying between the Kattegat and the Baltic Sea, separated from Sweden by The Sound (Øresund) and from Funen (Fyn) island by the Great Belt. Stevns Klint, Zealand, Denmark.

Did Old Zealand exist?

Yes there was. At least there was a Zeeland – in fact there still is. Aptly, when you consider New Zealand’s geographical isolation when compared to the rest of the world, this area of the Netherlands is the least populated in the entire country.

Why is Denmark called Zealand?

In Norse mythology as told in the Gylfaginning, the island was created by the goddess Gefjun after she tricked Gylfi, the king of Sweden. She removed a piece of land and transported it to Denmark, which became Zealand.

What was New Zealand originally called?

Hendrik Brouwer proved that the South American land was a small island in 1643, and Dutch cartographers subsequently renamed Tasman’s discovery Nova Zeelandia from Latin, after the Dutch province of Zeeland. This name was later anglicised to New Zealand.

Who lived in NZ before Māori?

Māori were the first to arrive in New Zealand, journeying in canoes from Hawaiki about 1,000 years ago. A Dutchman, Abel Tasman, was the first European to sight the country but it was the British who made New Zealand part of their empire.

Did the Chinese discover New Zealand First?

English explorer Captain James Cook reportedly “discovered” New Zealand’s East Coast on October 7, 1769, hundreds of years after it had been settled by Maori. But two visits early this year have convinced Cedric Bell that Chinese ships were visiting New Zealand 2000 years ago.

What did Māori call NZ?

Aotearoa

Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand, though it seems at first to have been used for the North Island only.

Are New Zealand and Hawaii related?

Polynesia is generally defined as the islands within the Polynesian Triangle, although some islands inhabited by Polynesian people are situated outside the Polynesian Triangle. Geographically, the Polynesian Triangle is drawn by connecting the points of Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island.

What does the word Pakeha mean?

the white inhabitants of New Zealand

The Word Pakeha. Pakeha, which is a Maori term for the white inhabitants of New Zealand, was in vogue even prior to 1815. Its original meaning and origin are obscure, but the following are possible origins, the first being the most probable: From pakepakeha: imaginary beings resembling men.

What’s the land of the long white cloud?

Aotearoa

New Zealand’s indigenous Maori people called their home Aotearoa (The Land of the Long White Cloud). It’s a fitting name: The country is made up of two main, elongated islands oriented north-south, that stretch about a thousand miles. Both islands are dominated by high mountain ranges over which white clouds often lie.

How did New Zealand get the name Aotearoa?

Aotearoa was used for the name of New Zealand in the 1878 translation of “God Defend New Zealand”, by Judge Thomas Henry Smith of the Native Land Court—this translation is widely used today when the anthem is sung in Māori.

Is it New Zealand or Aotearoa?

The popularity of Aotearoa can be gauged from William Pember Reeves’ 1898 history of New Zealand: The Long White Cloud Ao Tea Roa. Today, government departments commonly use Aotearoa, and it appears on the national currency.

What does the name New Zealand mean?

Land of the Long White Cloud

In the Māori language, the country is called Aotearoa, which means “Land of the Long White Cloud”. Ao means “cloud”, tea means “white”, and roa means “long”. The name “New Zealand” comes from “Zeeland” (which translates to “Sealand”) in Dutch, after the islands were seen by Dutch explorer Abel Tasman.

Where is Zeland?

Zeeland

Why is NZ not part of Australia?

On 1 July 1841 the islands of New Zealand were separated from the Colony of New South Wales and made a colony in their own right. This ended more than 50 years of confusion over the relationship between the islands and the Australian colony.

Where did the Māori come from?

Māori are the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, they settled here over 700 years ago. They came from Polynesia by waka (canoe). New Zealand has a shorter human history than any other country.

Did the Māori practice cannibalism?

Apart from the passing European, however, Maori cannibalism, like its Aztec counter- part, was practised exclusively on traditional enemies – i.e., on members of other tribes and hapuu (Vayda 1960:71). To use the jargon, the Maori were exo- rather than endocannibals.

Are there full blooded Māori?

A DNA ethnicity test taken by more than 9 million people worldwide has discovered a full-blooded Māori, Native Affairs presenter Oriini Kaipara. Oriini took the Ancestry.com DNA test last year as part of a Native Affairs story on Māori identity.