Minerva Hills National Park
Queensland
The Tower, 2014
Minerva Hills National Park is located in Queensland
Minerva Hills National Park
Minerva Hills National Park
Nearest town or citySpringsure
Coordinates24°04′50″S 148°03′51″E / 24.08056°S 148.06417°E / -24.08056; 148.06417
Established1994
Area27.90 km2 (10.77 sq mi)
Managing authoritiesQueensland Parks and Wildlife Service
WebsiteMinerva Hills National Park
See alsoProtected areas of Queensland

Minerva Hills is a national park in Central Queensland, Australia, 626 km northwest of Brisbane. Lookouts within the national park overlook the town of Springsure. The park features a rugged landscape with volcanic peaks, sheltered gorges, sheer cliffs, open woodlands and dry rainforest.[1]

The park lies within the water catchment areas of the Comet and Nogoa rivers and within the Brigalow Belt bioregion.[2]

There are four lookouts and a picnic area for visitors. Camping is not allowed in the park.[1]

Geology

The Minerva Hills National Park sits on the Oligocene Minerva Hills Volcanics. These volcanics have been broadly divided into a basal series of mafic lavas (some 70 m thick) overlain by a series of intercalated mafic volcanics, felsic volcanics ranging from trachyte to rhyolite and trachytic pyroclastics.  The pyroclastics are related to plugs and domes. The lower sequence has been dated at approximately 33 -34 Ma (million years) and the upper sequence 28.5–27.5 Ma.[3][4]

View of Minerva Hills National Park

The Minerva Hills Volcanics is a remnant of Oligocene hot spot volcanism known as the Cosgrove Hot Spot. This hot spot forms the longest continental hot spot track on earth.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "About Minerva Hills". Department of National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing. 14 February 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  2. ^ "Minerva Hills National Park". WetlandInfo. Department of Environment and Heritage Protection. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  3. ^ Ewart, A. (10 November 1981). "The mineralogy and chemistry of the anorogenic tertiary silicic volcanics of S.E. Queensland and N.E. New South Wales, Australia". Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 86 (B11): 10242–10256. doi:10.1029/JB086iB11p10242. ISSN 2156-2202.
  4. ^ "Macrostrat". macrostrat.org. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  5. ^ Hansma, Jeroen; Tohver, Eric (13 June 2019). "Paleomagnetism of Oligocene Hot Spot Volcanics in Central Queensland, Australia". Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 124 (7): 6280–6296. doi:10.1029/2019JB017639. S2CID 197566315.


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