Marlborough Sounds Resource Management Plan Soils include: hill country strongly leached to podzolised stony steepland soils and podzols from indurated greywacke; argillite; schist and associated solid fluvial debris. Alluvial soils in restricted locations with high fertility; mineralised soils from ultrabasic rocks with strong nutrient imbalances; highly enriched soils of seabird islands; and skeletal soils of the exposed coastal margins. Overall, the Sounds are a rare and nationally important landform. This is the largest and most well-developed example of a ria coastline in New Zealand, formed as a result of both subsidence and sea level rise, to produce a profoundly incised and intricately indented coastline with attenuated, fragmented blocks of land largely surrounded by sea. The 70 km wide, 150 km long wedge of erosion-resistant greywacke and schist that makes up North Marlborough has been shunted northward into Cook Strait by the Alpine Fault. Submarine subsidence of the Wanganui Basin has tilted the wedge downwards to the northeast, and has combined with post-glacial sea level rise to create a partially-drowned landscape. River valleys and terraces have been inundated to become sounds, inlets and bays; ridges have become peninsulas and headlands; islands created as ridgelines have sunk below sea level; major river systems have changed direction and course (eg; Pelorus River); the penetrating influence of the marine environment on coastal erosion, regional climate and biological systems has been profound. The major landforms that contribute to the natural character of the region include: the two steep-flanked main mountain ranges (Bryant and Richmond); various steep-sided, isolated mountain massifs (eg. Mts Stokes, Stanley and Robertson) (v&s); extensive river valleys (Pelorus, Rai, Wakamarina, Kaituna) with well developed fluvial landforms (alluvial terraces and fans, floodplains, deltas, wetlands, estuaries) and diversity of river types (eg; meandering, intrenched); the distinctive topography of the western ultramafic areas (including Patuki and Croisilles melanges) (v&s); a multitude of capes, headlands, peninsulas and points; an extensive and complex labryinth of waterways; narrow sea channels, passages, reaches, arms, harbours and embayments (v&s); discrete marine-created landforms: barrier beaches, boulder banks and lagoons, tombolos, spits, cuspate forelands, dunelands (mainly in the western sounds) (v&s); well-developed coastal cliffs especially in the Outer Sounds; numerous islands and rock stacks (v&s). (v&s = visually and scientifically important). Nationally important geological features include: Matarau Point beach ridge foreland; Greville Harbour boulder spit; serpentinitic breccias along parts of the western coast; Dun Mountain and Patuki melange ultramafic geologies and landforms. Internationally and nationally important areas for soils and soil processes include forested areas of: Pelorus headwaters; Pelorus Bridge; Endeavour Inlet head and Tennyson Inlet - Nydia Bay; and indigenous vegetation on the mineral belt along the Bryant Range and on D’Urville Island. 2. Dynamic Features and Processes, Including Climate That very diverse, highly variable climate ranges from warm and maritime dry- temperate in the Outer Sounds, to wet and cold alpine along the Richmond and Bryant Ranges. Rainfall varies from around 800 mm in the Outer Sounds to over 2000 mm along the ranges. Rainfall generally increases with increasing altitude and distance from the outer coast, as well as from the eastern Sounds to the western Sounds. App Two - 4