Mathesons Bay

Mathesons Bay
Mathesons Bay
Location within the Auckland Region
Location within the Auckland Region
Mathesons Bay
Location within the Auckland Region
LocationAuckland Region, New Zealand
Coordinates36°18′09″S 174°47′51″E / 36.302513°S 174.797427°E / -36.302513; 174.797427
River sourcesKohuroa Stream
Ocean/sea sourcesPacific Ocean
IslandsMathesons Bay Island

Mathesons Bay (Māori: Te Kohuroa; officially Te Kohuroa / Mathesons Bay)[1][2] is a small beach in the Rodney district of the Auckland Region of New Zealand.[3] It is 21 kilometres north-east of Warkworth, near the small community of Leigh. It comprises mainly holiday homes, with a small number of permanent residents.

Description

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Off shore there is a small island called Mathesons Bay Island which has some big rocks coming off which shelters the beach. There is sometimes a pontoon that is very fun to jump off. No dogs on beach between 9:00 am and 7:00 pm from the start of labour weekend to the end of Easter Monday, But for the rest of the year dogs are allowed on whenever they want. There is a small playground with a short walk up the hillside. There is a walk way that starts at Mathesons Bay and goes just past the end of Matheson Bay Road.

Geology and palaeontology

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The rocks at Mathesons Bay comprise Waipapa Terrane greywacke overlain by sediments of the early Miocene Waitemata Group, the latter of which is divided between the basal, shallow marine Cape Rodney Formation, and the turbidite deposits of the Pakiri Formation.[4] These sediments form part of sequence that is inferred to reflect the subsidence of the area from a shallow rocky shore to a deep marine basin beginning approximately 21.7 million years ago. Many fossil invertebrates can be found in the cliffs and rock platforms, notably brachiopods (Notosaria, Magasella), barnacles (Epopella, Tasmanobalanus, Bathylasma), bivalves (Eucrassatella, Crenostrea), gastropods (Sarmaturbo, Cellana), corals (Cyathoseris, Leptoseris, Keratoisis), an echinoid (Phyllacanthus) and bryozoans.[5][6] The remnant of a fossilized methane seep was formerly exposed in the cliffs to the north of Mathesons Bay Reserve, but has subsequently been buried by rockfalls.

References

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  1. ^ "Notice of New and Altered Geographic Names, and Altered Crown Protected Area Names, for Ngāti Manuhiri Treaty of Waitangi Settlement 2012". Land Information New Zealand. 20 December 2012. Archived from the original on 12 February 2013. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
  2. ^ "Islands and bays renamed in Maori". stuff.co.nz. 7 June 2011. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
  3. ^ "Place name detail: Mathesons Bay". New Zealand Gazetteer. New Zealand Geographic Board. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
  4. ^ RICKETTS, B.D., BALANCE, P.F., HAYWARD, B.W. and MAYER, W., 1989, Basal Waitemata Group lithofacies: rapid subsidence in an early Miocene interarc basin, New Zealand: Sedimentology, v. 36 (4), p. 559 - 580.
  5. ^ EAGLE, M.K., HAYWARD, B.W., GRANT-MACKIE, J.A. and GREGORY, M. R., 1999, Fossil communities in an Early Miocene transgressive sequence, Mathesons Bay, Leigh, Auckland: Tane, v. 37, p. 43–67.
  6. ^ CRAMPTON, J.S., TEREZOW, M.G. 2018 The Kiwi fossil hunter's handbook. Auckland: Random House. 207 p.