NATURE OF FIORDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20990, 29 September 1931, Page 11

NATURE OF FIORDS.

A GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

PROFESSOR SPEIGHT'S VISIT.

With tho object of preparing a report cn the 'geological features of the West Coast Sounds for submission to the PanPacific Cpnference next year, Professor R. Speight made a trip on the Government lighthouse steamer Matai on her rounds recently. He returned to Christchurch on Thursday.- The Sounds country presents some of the most difficult geological problems of New Zealand, its mountainous nature having retarded investigations and conflicting theories have been advanced particularly in regard to the formation of the fiords. Professor Speight leans to the view that glaciers played a big part. " The Pan-Pacific Conference meets at Vancouver in May, 1932," said the professor. " The study of sounds and fiords will be a special feature of the conference. In Western Canada there are a series of sounds and naturally the people there are specially interested in those of other countries for comparative purposes. " This not only includes the mode of formation,' but investigations of the water and life in the sounds. I took samples of water which the Dominion laboratory has undertaken to analyse. My special interest was to see if I had any different ideas on the mode of formation of the Southland sounds. These have been widely described and opinions are not uniform. Some attribute their formation to earth movements and others to great glaciers. " I have come to the conclusion that glaciers hWe played a very important part in their formation. There are serious difficulties in the way of investigations. Gregory has maintained that the formation was due to earth fractures. In support of that theory & chart of the sounds will show that they run either north-west or south-east, or at right angles to that. Personally, I am not so wedded to that theory as I was. My opinion is that they have been modified by glacial action. The same features of the sounds are to be seen in many of the valleys, only they are not submerged. It seems hard to attribute them all to fractures. " Indications are that there are few mineral/'deposits, although they are likely to exist on the fringes of the granite formations. Copper deposits were formerly worked and gold was found at Preservation Inlet. There is some prospecting going on, but not in the main part, and there does not seem to be much hope of finding gold in. the main area. Limestone and marble have also been worked. It is possible, however, that minerals of th::s kind may be obtained with a more careful examination. They are most likely to occur in south Westland and .Western Southland."