Prelims ask
New Zealand, Alpine Fault, Aoraki / Mount Cook, west wet, east dry.
Oceania · Young fold
Southern Alps (New Zealand)
- Countries
- New Zealand, South Island only.
- Length
- About 500 km.
- Orientation
- Northeast–southwest.
- Mountain type
- Young fold
- Plates
- Pacific plate against the Australian plate along the Alpine Fault. Oblique collision and very fast uplift.
- Highest peak
- Aoraki / Mount Cook, 3,724 m.
- Rivers that rise here
- Short, steep rivers on both flanks. East-coast rivers are braided across the Canterbury Plains. There is no great continental river.
- Climate and rain shadow
- Westerlies hit a wall. The west coast is among the wettest temperate coasts. The Canterbury Plains are the rain shadow. The local foehn is the Nor’wester.
Mains use
The cleanest Southern Hemisphere example of westerly orographic rain and a named local wind, for the 2021 question.