Slope movements around the Tutamoe Plateau (Central Northland New Zealand)

The Tutamoe Plateau consists of a prominent upstanding tableland of resistant well jointed basaltic rock and regolith. Underlying sediments are highly to extremely weathered, eroded and very weak, with subdued topographic expression. Stream superposition and erosion of these sediments by slope movement results in oversteepened slopes which maintain the edge of the Plateau in a state of disequilibrium. Continued and successive undercutting of the Plateau creates large and varied slope movements. Degradation and retreat of the Plateau edge is continuous and ongoing.