What’s more interesting than Question Time at Parliament House? Staring at rocks underneath Parliament House. Forget Dorothy Dixers; as part of National Science Week. you can check out a strange geological phenomenon called an “unconformity”.
For geologists, the fascination of what lies beneath Parliament House is more about what’s not there.
Here’s some Geology for Dummies (no offence): Canberra used to be an ocean floor (oh, how wonderful for inland Canberrans to be so close to the sea). About 430 million years ago, an earthquake forced the land up above the water and, for millions of years, it was eroded away by natural elements to nothing. That layer of geological history gone forever.
What you can see beneath Parliament House is a rock wall showing old sediment touching “newer” sediment but missing about 10 million years of history in between. The “unconformity” is like having a book with the middle pages torn out.
You don’t have to have an earth science degree to appreciate the enormity of this phenomenon on Capital Hill. Unfortunately, authorities didn’t value it and built Parliament House on top of it, despite geologists’ attempts to preserve the site.
By pure chance, the “unconformity” wasn’t obscured by concrete and can still be seen across the basement area of Parliament House. Tourists are accustomed to walking over the grassy top of Parliament House(as was intended, to remind politicians of who they work for) but now the public can catch a rare glimpse underground at this ancient rock formation as part of National Science Week, 12-20 August.
It’s pleasing to know that the very foundations on which our parliament is built are nonconformists. If you do go on the tour, you’ll even get to sashay past heavy security at Parliament House with your “private areas pass”, provided you bring a photo ID. An expert geologist will be on hand to give you a much better explanation of “unconformities” than I have here.
Tours are on Friday 11 August and Saturday 12 August. Bookings: https://events.humanitix.com/unconformity-tour
