Flute Rocks

From: Edmund Waller's (2001) "Landscape Planning in Singapore"

Few areas of Pulau Ubin are more than one kilometre from the sea and a study of the coastal geomorphology of the islands of Singapore (Swan, 1971:43-61) includes some examples from Pulau Ubin. Some of the rocks exhibit evidence of exfoliation in which the outer skin of the rock peels off like an onion. The exposed granite also weathers into rather unusual vertical grooves or flutes (see picture 1), which interested early geologists such as Logan (1847). These solution grooves often extend below the mean low water mark. A beautiful example of this may be seen at the former "Nature House" (now a Club House) where the naturally sculptured rock has been covered with orange lichens and then partially swalloed by a huge fig tree.

[editor's note: anybody know this rock and tree? Photos?]


Picture 1: "Flute rocks" (Source: Ubin Stories Gallery, 5 Sept 2004)

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References:

Waller, Edmund (2001) "Landscape Planning in Singapore" (Singapore: Singapore University Press) pp.165-171

Swan S.B.StC. (1971) "Coastal Geomorphology in a Hot Humid Low-energy Environment: The Islands of Singapore" in Journal of Tropical Geography, Vol 33