The Omarama Clay Cliffs, also known as the Ahuriri River Clay Cliffs and the Clay Cliffs Paritea are a group of

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff or rock face is an area of Rock (geology), rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. ...

s in southern

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. They are located close to the north bank of the Ahuriri River, some 10 km to the west of the township of

Omarama Omarama is a small town (population 291 as of the 2018 census) at the junction of State Highway 8 (New Zealand), State Highways 8 and New Zealand State Highway 83, 83, near the southern end of the Mackenzie Basin, in the South Island of New Ze ...

. The cliffs serve as a

tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural beaut ...

in the area and they are privately owned. There is a fee to park.

Formation

The cliffs are made up of layers of

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension (chemistry), suspension with water. Silt usually ...

and

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

that were formed during glacial

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

around two million years ago, and are part of the Hawkdun Group of sediments. The cliffs were uplifted by the nearby Ostler Fault.

References

Tourist attractions in New Zealand Cliffs of Oceania Waitaki District Rock formations of the Canterbury Region {{CanterburyNZ-geo-stub