Remarkable Rocks

Remarkable Rocks is visited on the:

• 2 Day Kangaroo Island Tour
• 3 Day Kangaroo Island Tour

Located on the rugged South Western corner of Kangaroo Island, South Australia, Remarkable Rocks is indeed a Remarkable destination and it is difficult to think of a more appropriate name, Extraordinary, Outstanding, Incredible or Amazing Rocks might suit.

What makes this destination so remarkable is both the rocks themselves, which take on sculptured organic shapes, and their position, these amazing rocks are perched on a large dome foundation which it's self sits on a high cliff overlooking the southern ocean.

The view inland is equally impressive, instead of a pristine ocean of blue, your eyes feast on a pristine wilderness of green, for Remarkable Rocks is located deep within the Flinders Chase Conservation Park, and the only man made object which can be seen from the area is the road which gets you there.

Geology.

The rocks themselves are a hard granite, formed may millions of years ago deep underground. Over the years, as the mass of earth covering the granite has eroded away, the pressure on the granite has become less, causing the granite to expand and crack. As the rock has cracked and been exposed the elements, erosion has started in the cracks and ultimately left a number of boulders behind.

The boulders have then turned into very weird shapes, why? Read on!

Why the weird shapes?

Although the National Parks has erected some excellent signage at remarkable rocks to explain the geology, when it comes to explaining the peculiar shapes, it simply says they caused by erosion from wind and rain? Which is about as helpful as tits on a bull! Thankfully as we have visited Remarkable Rocks hundreds of times on our tours, we have been able to come up with a much better explanation.

Wind and rain definitely plays a big part, but the important ingredient here is their actual location of the rocks perched high on the cliff, we know this because if you look at the base of the cliffs at Remarkable Rocks, there are many large granite boulders in the ocean which appear to be made of the same granite rock, none of them have the peculiar organic shapes though, they are all simply big round boulders, so there is nothing about the actual rock which makes the funny shapes, it must be their location.

The answer seems to lie in the prevailing wind direction, which is from the south, and fairly constant. If you examine the rocks carefully, you will notice that there is an actual pattern to the erosion, each of the rocks has a convex shape on one side, and a dish or concave shape on the other, the majority of all the concave shapes face away from the ocean, and the majority of all the convex shapes face the ocean.

What appears to be happening at Remarkable Rocks is that when the rocks get wet, it also rains a lot, some of the water seeps into the rock, loosens it up and makes it slightly softer, and a softer bit of rock will erode quicker than a harder bit of rock, this is quite normal. Because the wind is so constantly from the south, the side of the rock facing the wind, tends to dry out a little quicker, and thus erodes less, where as the side facing away from the wind stays wet longer, is softer and erodes at a slightly quicker pace. As the erosion occurs, you begin to get a dish shape in one side of the rock, and the deeper the dish gets, the longer it stays wet, the softer it gets and the quicker it erodes.

When visiting Remarkable Rocks, have a look and have a feel, the rock in the dish side is definitely softer, you can feel it.

Why are Remarkable Rocks Red?

Australia is famous for it's red rocks, we have the biggest one in the world located in Central Australia called Uluru, or Ayers Rock, if you are interested in visiting this amazing region, try our Ayers Rock Tours. Just like Remarkable Rocks, Ayers Rock is also a granite rock whose natural colour is grey, however the red color of Ayers Rock comes from rusting iron oxide, where the red colour of Remarkable Rocks comes from a tiny living plant, called a lichen. Remarkable Rocks is covered in a small lichen plant, which is red in colour, the interesting thing about lichens is that they are very susceptible to pollution, and their presence often indicates a very clean environment. The whole southern coast of Australia is possible the cleanest in the world, the southerly winds blowing in from the ocean have traveled thousands of kilometres over open ocean where there is no industry and last saw land at Antarctica.

If you would like to visit Remarkable Rocks on a small group adventure tour, or for more information on both Kangaroo Island tours, please go to 2 Day Kangaroo Island Tour or 3 Day Kangaroo Island Tour.

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Remarkable Rocks Photos