Wilpena Pound is a huge natural amphitheatre in the southern Flinders Ranges of South Australia, 400 km north of Adelaide. It is a large basin-shaped structure ringed by cliffs, made up mainly of the Pre-Cambrian age Rawnsley Quartzite. It covers an area of 83 km2, and the interior measures 11 km by 8 km. Although it has a crater-like appearance, it is not a meteorite impact crater. The Rawnsley Quartzite (in the Pound Subgroup) is made up of quartz-rich sediments originally laid down in a large ocean. The structure was originally a huge dome pushed up by earth movements about 650 million years ago. The floor of the Pound is about 200 m above the surrounding plains, and the outer ring of cliffs rising 500 m from the plains is all that remains of much higher mountains surrounding the Pound, since eroded by many thousands of metres. The highest prominence is St. Marys Peak, at 1170 m above sea level.
Copyright © Australian Museum, 2004