Temaungama / Mt Néthou

This is an article related to the Commonwealth of New Duveland

Temaungama / Mt Néthou
Western face of Temaungama
Highest point
Elevation	3,404 m (11,168 ft)
Prominence	2,812 m (9,226 ft)
Listing	List of mountains of New Duveland by height, Ultra
Geography
Location	Moanarua, New Duveland
Country	New Duveland
Parent range	Southern Tasman Ranges
Geology
Age of rock	Paleozoic • Mesozoic
Climbing
First ascent	February 1895
Easiest route	Basic snow/ice climb

Temaungama (also known as Mt Néthou) is the highest mountain in the Southern Tasman Ranges of Moanarua, and New Duveland's third-highest mountain, following the 4,132 m high Kei Runga Kapua / Mount Luiz in Tasman, and 3,743 m high Arama Maunga on the border of Tasman and Devereaux, both part of the Northern Tasman Ranges, both of which are stratovolcanos, making Temaungama the tallest non-volcanic mountain in New Duveland.

Temaungama is located in the Southern Tasman Ranges National Park, which is shared between the provinces of Moanarua and McKenzie. It is part of the Mararetā massif and is located in the Peneke valley. It consists of Paleozoic terrain of a granitic nature and Mesozoic materials. Its northern side holds the largest glacier in New Duveland, covering 87 square kilometres (21,498 ¹⁄₄ acres) in 2005; it is shrinking rapidly due to warming summer temperatures and decreasing winter precipitations over the 20th century – it covered 110 square kilometres (27,181 ¹⁄₂ acres) in 1981, and over 150 square kilometres (37,065 ³⁄₄ acres) in the 19th century. It is estimated that it has lost more than half of its surface in the last 100 years, and that it may disappear around 2050.

Glaciers

Temaungama's summit and glacier seen from the upper Pōtitoni

This agglomeration of summits, all markedly Alpine, is the birthplace of what were once the largest glaciers in the Southern Tasman Ranges, which stretched up to the mouth of the Kahuika Valley with depths of ice several hundred metres thick. Today, global warming has reduced the portentous mass to eleven glaciers that total only three hundred acres. No one knows for sure when the melting process began but despite a slight advance in the '50s it has now accelerated rapidly, and it is expected that the Temaungama permafrost and the glaciers of the Southern Tasman Ranges could disappear around the middle of the 21st century. The surrounding ranges account for almost all of New Duveland's glaciers, apart from a handful that exist on the taller Volcanic peaks in Tasman, namely on Kei Runga Kapua / Mount Luiz, New Duveland's tallest mountain.

Geography

Temaungama rises to 3,404 m (11,168 ft) above sea level in the centre of the Southern Tasman Ranges. It lies entirely in Moanarua, just south of the main ridge of the ranges and the border between McKenzie and Moanarua. The peak lies in the very east of Moanarua, in the Eastern-Southern Tasman Ranges Region.

Temaungama occupies the eastern end of the Mararetā Massif which primarily consists of a 6 km long ridge, running from north-east to south west at over 3000m. The ridge connects Temaungama towards the south with the more visible Mararetā peak, further to the north, and includes the Koronasi peaks and Maratito, which, together with the crest of the Pōtitoni, gives the massif its characteristic image.

Although the valley to the east is the source of the Kimihia river, which flows north and then west and flows into the Ōmokoroa Sea, the eastern slopes of Temaungama and its glacier drain into a sinkhole called Porau o Aigualluts in the Pané o Aigualluts and flow underground to the south where they resurface to empty into the Charles Valley and the Charles river, flowing east into McKenzie and is one of the main contributors to the McKenzie River, merging between the towns of Kikeel and Waikanae. The waters of the northern and eastern sides, flow into the Koronasi and Rorosas lakes respectively before draining separately into the river Ballibierna, which flows into the Ihera, then the Kinka before joining the Ipero and flowing to the Ōmokoroa, and by default, the Tasman Sea. Thus although Temaungama does not lie on the main ridge of the Southern Tasman Ranges, it does lie on the watershed between the McKenzie and the Ōmokoroa drainage basins.

Gallery

Panoramic view of the Mararetā massif. The Temaungama summit is in the left side of the image.

Temaungama Peak (3404m) summit panorama, looking South West, Southern Tasman Ranges.

See also

• List of Southern Tasman Ranges three-thousanders
• List of mountains of New Duveland by height