Limestone and shells
OUMNH-Hist.Rocks 4000
Holding institution:
Donor:
H.N. Moseley
Licence:
Creative Commons CC BY NC SA
Voyage:
HMS Challenger (1872-76)
Date Collected:
16 September 1874 - 23 September 1874
Form:
Dry
Station/Area Information
Date collected:
16 September 1874 - 23 September 1874
Area:
Wanumbai Island, Wateiai Channel, Aru Islands, Indonesia
Water body:
Arafura Sea
Notes:
Specimens in Dent's collar box. Handwritten label accompanying specimens reads "Wanumbai Island. Aru Islands". Another handwritten label reads "Stratified rock from the Island of Wanumbai on the shores of the (Walelai)? Channel between the islands of Wokan and Wanumbai Aru Islands. The rock denuded is exposed in a cliff and flat smoothe shore platform. It is nearly horizontal in arrangement and remarkably conformable. In the cliff the arrangement of the rock is hidden by a coating of a redeposit of lime from running water which forms beds. These specimens from the shore platform. covering it up and formed of steeply sloped layers. Near the mouth of the channel on the open coast the primary beds of which this specimen forms part are seen to be slightly inclined seawards. The rock seems to be a coral mud deposit. but I am not certain. Parts of the island are 60 to 100 feet elevated above the sea. They are entirely composed of ["coral" crossed out] coral lime rock. Cardium shells are to be found everywhere high up in the streams washed out of the rock. (Two so found included). The water in the streams deposits["a" crossed out] stalag -titic masses forming irregular ridges separating successive basins". To see Oxford University Museum of Natural History's database go to http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/collect/lifecoll2.htm