South coast walk: Coogee to Ivor Rowe rockpool

in coogee •  5 years ago  (edited)

Went for a bit of a walk along the beach this arvo. Started at Coogee beach and headed south:

Screen Shot 2019-06-16 at 6.46.36 pm.png

We certainly have some interesting coastline here in Australia. Amazing to think at one stage, at the time of the dinosaurs I'd have been completely submerged. Standing today on top of Sydney's sandstone, which are fluvial deposits from an ancient riverbed delta.

More recently the coastline extended way further out, another '12 km east', as the water got locked up in ice in the last ice age (115000 –  11700 years ago [1]). The water started to rise again roughly 12000 years ago at the end of this ice age with the coastline finally rising up to todays level about 6000 years ago.

IMG_20190616_153819.jpg

Here is some of the sedimentary rock with some interesting weathering patterns:
IMG_20190616_154244.jpg

Looking north back towards Coogee:
IMG_20190616_153927.jpg

Walked past a peat bog (South Coogee wetlands), which had formed over the past thousand years or so inside basically an enclave in the rocky cliff, eating into the sandstone before reaching the bedrock.

IMG_20190616_155125.jpg

They have taken samples, looked at the layers and found more charcoal from pre-european times (indicating more controlled burns) and more dust in the sediment dated after, due to erosion:
IMG_20190616_155024.jpg

Looking south now from Trenerry reserve, it had been raining so lots of water around:
IMG_20190616_154707.jpg

This drain headed out to sea, over the Ivor Rowe rockpool, as you can see plenty of plastic debris around too (I counted at least 3 large pieces):
IMG_20190616_160645.jpg

IMG_20190616_160650.jpg

IMG_20190616_160704.jpg

There was a larger drain nearby, though it had a much less volume of water coming out:
IMG_20190616_160716.jpg

At the end of the track (though it probably continues further) a lot of water was flowing off the road (Bunda parade) into an exit drain here:
IMG_20190616_160517.jpg

I'm not sure where the water goes after then. Looking closer debris could be seen in and around sediment deposit:
IMG_20190616_160506.jpg

Most of the water seemed to be coming out of this drainage outlet:

IMG_20190616_160547.jpg

And nearby worksite had decent amount of runoff too:

IMG_20190616_160607.jpg

Not sure what this plant was but the berries looked great:
IMG_20190616_155650.jpg

Thanks for reading!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Glacial_Period

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

Congratulations @jondanielford! You received a personal award!

Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 1 year!

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!