Geology Picture of the Week, July 8-14, 2007: Paths of the Dead (New Zealand)

TheOneRing.net ^ | New Zealand Government and various

[cogitator]

Keeping on an erosion theme, I looked for pictures of the location used for the "Paths of the Dead" in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, specifically in "The Return of the King". They are called the Putangirua Pinnacles. They are located near Wellington on the southeastern North Island. I linked to the OneRing.net image above.

There are some better, higher-resolution pictures on the Web, but not easily linkable.

[cogitator]

In other news, the Pu'u O'o lava lake is still rising; and the Kilauea summit is inflating, indicating increasing magma volume and pressure below. Something's got to give:

Hawaii Volcano Observatory Status Page

[cogitator]

** ping **

[Robert A Cook PE]

Pretty.

I’ll have to go back through the LOTR film DVD’s to see how they used this spot.

[Steve Van Doorn]

When the Smeagol shown the hobbits how to get around the gates of Mordor. Remember when Smeagol threw the food off the side of the cliff.

[cogitator]

Actually, Paths of the Dead was the scene before Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli went “under the mountain” which was haunted by the Oath-Breakers (the ghosts who allied with Aragorn to turn finish the job at Pelennor Fields — not exactly the way it happened in the book, but quite effective in the movie).

[Steve Van Doorn]

Thank you for correcting my mistake.