Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
(b)
(c)
Figure 10.6.
(b) Scalloping at The Granites, Mount Magnet, Western Australia. (c) Books of flakes in
mamillated ceiling of tafone, Ucontitchie Hill, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia.
tafoni (Figs 10.6a and b). Books of flakes developed over the entire rock surface are commonly
associated with such features (Fig. 10.6c). Such flaking denotes an active surface. Elsewhere the
granite is loose and disaggregated. But some walls are stable and apparently no longer subject to
change.
Tafoni are developed on the undersides of sheet structure and of boulders, though they also occur
on the sides of steep rock walls, hence, sheet tafoni, boulder tafoni (tortoiseshell rocks) and side-
wall tafoni. Tafoni vary in size from a few centimetres radius to large hollows that are metres
across and high, and in which a group of people can readily stand. They have been described from
several climatic contexts, and in particular from arid or semi-arid areas, both cold and warm, both
interior and coastal, for instance from Antarctica, Hong Kong, Corsica (Klaer, 1956), Sardinia,
central and southern Australia
(Fig. 10.7).
The split mushroom rock known as the Peyro Clabado
in the Sidobre of southern France is hollow on its underside, and small tafoni and alveoles, known
