Turakirae Head

Raised beach, Turakirae Head
Turakirae Head is located in New Zealand
Turakirae Head
Turakirae Head

Turakirae Head is a promontory on the southern coast of New Zealand's North Island.[1] It is located at the western end of Palliser Bay, 20 kilometres southeast of Wellington, at the southern end of the Remutaka Range. The headland hosts a series of uplifted Holocene marine terraces and beach ridges that record uplift from past earthquakes.[2] After each earthquake, a new terrace and beach ridge formed below the previous one at sea level. The most recent earthquake to uplift Turakirae Head was the 1855 Wairarapa earthquake, which raised the shoreline up to 6.4 m.[2] Turakirae Head is also home to a seal colony and southern bull kelp.[3]

Turakirae also marks the southernmost coastal boundary point for the Ngāti Kahungunu tribe which extends as far north as Paritu which is just south of Gisborne.

  1. ^ "Place name detail: Turakirae Head". New Zealand Gazetteer. New Zealand Geographic Board. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  2. ^ a b McSaveney, Maurice J.; Graham, Ian J.; Begg, John G.; Beu, Alan G.; Hull, Alan G.; Kim, Kyeong; Zondervan, Albert (September 2006). "Late Holocene uplift of beach ridges at Turakirae Head, south Wellington coast, New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 49 (3): 337–358. doi:10.1080/00288306.2006.9515172. ISSN 0028-8306.
  3. ^ Vaux, Felix; Parvizi, Elahe; Craw, Dave; Fraser, Ceridwen I.; Waters, Jonathan M. (2022). "Parallel recolonisations generate distinct genomic sectors in kelp following high magnitude earthquake disturbance?". Molecular Ecology. 31 (18): 4818–4831. doi:10.1111/mec.16535. PMC 9540901. PMID 35582778.