Victoria Park Playground

BY SAM HAMPTON (UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY)
Accessibility: EASY
Close up view of a lava flow, with its contact to the ash horizons below
The volcanic deposits here at Victoria Park reflect the volcanic origins of Banks Peninsula. You will find ash horizons from different volcanic eruptions, overlying lava flows, and a cross cutting volcanic dyke.
This site is a great place to investigate the history and varying volcanic rocks and eruptive processes.
A volcanic breccia which lies over top of the lava flow
Here are some geological principles and definitions that scientists use when trying to understand a rock outcrop such as this one:
Law of superposition: in undeformed stratigraphic sequences, the oldest strata will be at the bottom of the sequence.
Cross-cutting relationships: a geologic feature which cuts another must be the younger of the two features
Lava flows: Are the effusive (non-explosive) outpourings of lava, and usually flow slower than walking pace.
Ash Horizons: Are deposits of ash from a volcanic eruption that can vary in composition and color. In this section these ash horizons host small fragments of lava and crystals from the explosive eruptions.
Scoria: A vesicle (remnant gas bubble) rich volcanic rock.
Volcanic Dyke: A dyke is a vertical instrusion between older layers of rock
Outcrop view from the back
Can you figure out what is the sequence of events that formed these rocks? You can use the geological principles to help you in this process.
Lava flows are made up of breccia and coherent (solid) lava, can you identify the rubbly breccia and the solid lava?
Are the ash horizons older or younger than the lavas?
In the ash layer, can you see evidence of multiple eruptions? Hint – look at the colour differences, grain size, crystals, and check if these changes occur in bands.
The volcanic dyke cross-cuts both the ash layers and the lavas. Where the dyke contacts the ash and lava flow, it cuts through the layers. If you look in detail you can also see chilled margins (finer rock along the edges) in the dyke and baked margins in the surrounding rock.
Directions/Advisory

Victoria Park Rd, Cashmere, Christchurch 8022

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Accessibility: EASY

From the carpark, you must walk about 100m to where the slide of the playground is. Underneath the slide will be scoria and there is a small path that goes behind the slide to the outcrop.

Features
Volcanic
Geological Age
Between 12 and 9.7 million years old
Zealandia Evolution Sequence
Māui Supergroup (Emergence): 25 – 5 million years ago