The Greenland Group is one of the most widespread rocks on the western side of the Alpine Fault. It is a thick, uniform sequence of quartz-rich greywacke and argillite, deposited in early Ordovician time (about 490 million years ago). This outcrop is at Seventeen Mile Bluff, on the coast north of Greymouth.
Rocks similar to the Greenland Group are found in Antarctica and eastern Australia. They were originally part of the ancient Gondwana continent, which later split and drifted apart.
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Photograph by Simon Nathan
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