The Power of Water Raukawa Falls Wanganui Dist. EarthCache
Hidden : 4/22/2013
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

Water  and rivers can change the land.

Raukawa Falls is an attractively wide waterfall that's probably about 15m tall and 50m wide. It's easily seen from a signed pullout along a main highway. From the pullout, there is a viewing platform allowing you to look below at the impressive waterfall in the distance. The falls are on State Highway 4 between Wanganui and Raetehi.
Travel up the winding but beautiful road State highway 4 and you will soon see the grey soft rock on either side of the road .This rock is known as papa.
The terms papa or papa-rock are used for the widespread soft, blue-grey mudstone or muddy sandstone.
Although the word papa is of Māori derivation (meaning earth), by the mid-19th century it was being used by pakeha writers referring to mudstone, and in 1905 it was nicely summed up: ‘The Papa Rock, of which many of the cliffs in the bush country of New Zealand are formed, is really a very hard, blue clay … It lies in distinct strata, and when the wet penetrates to one beneath, the surface of this latter becomes as slippery as glass’.
This soft rock known as papa was deposited on the sea floor over the last 15 million years, then later uplifted. It is relatively soft because it has never been deeply buried or compacted. For engineering purposes, papa is classified as ‘soft rock’ or ‘engineering soil’ because it has the physical properties of unconsolidated soil rather than rock.
Large chunks of this rock break off shattering as they hit the road and after heavy rain the road is closed by land slips or by the road dropping away down to the Mangawhero river below.


To complete this earth cache stop at the pullover viewing spot on the left of the road Stae Highway4 going up to Raetihi .

Go onto the viewing platform and email the CO what you see. You will notice the waterfall is different than what it appeared in the photo. What geological phenomenon has occurred? The photo was taken in 2011 . Can you estimate the speed at which this phenomenon is taking place ? ( in cm/year as an average) What do you think might change the speed that is taking place? Please do not log photos of the falls on the site .
You may log the find and email me with your answers

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