The sea versus the land - will there be a winner?
Presented by the 2024 Hochstetter Lecturer, David Barrell, GNS Science
Aotearoa New Zealand is the largest emergent part of the mainly submerged Zealandia continent. Plate-boundary tectonic deformation is responsible for Aotearoa’s ongoing emergence, and its margins are constantly under attack by waves in the vast surrounding ocean. Aotearoa’s landscape reflects an interplay between the rock foundations, the climate which gives precipitation to drive erosion and the river transport of sediment, and wave energy in the coastal zone which distributes the sediment once it reaches the sea.
Perspectives of ‘whole system’ processes and mass/energy budgets, coupled with eustatic ebb and flow of the sea across the continental shelf through glacial/interglacial climate cycles, provide an integrated approach for explaining the form of Aotearoa’s landscape and behaviour of its river systems.
This talk explores the battle between sea and land, from the deep geological past through to modern times, and interpret the richly varied form of our coastline, from the long sweeping cliffs of some places, and indented bays and estuaries of others. Whole-system perspectives will be used to discuss likely coastal changes in coming decades to centuries under changing climate.