The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain, Volume 1 (of 2)Geikie, Archibald
History
The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain, Volume 1 (of 2)
Geikie, Archibald
Volcanoes -- Great Britain
Under any computation or measurement, the total thickness of detrital
material in this series of formations must amount to several thousand
feet. The chief interest centres in the middle series, which consists
largely of fragmental volcanic rocks, with intercalations of slate
and grit. As was first shown by Mr. Hill and Professor Bonney, these
volcanic materials vary from exceedingly coarse agglomerates to fine,
ashy or felspathic slates. In most cases distinct bedding can be
recognized in them, but more particularly in the fine-grained material.
Yet even among the massive agglomerates a tendency may be seen towards
an orientation of the blocks with their long axes parallel. That
this arrangement is not entirely due to the effects of cleavage may
be inferred from the many exceptions to it, which would hardly have
occurred had such powerful cleavage affected the whole district, as
would be needed to rearrange the large blocks in the agglomerates.
Besides, the coarser parts often intercalate with fine felspathic
grits, which distinctly mark the stratification of the whole.
The remarkably coarse breccia of Benscliffe is mainly made up of blocks
of quartz-porphyry, felsite or rhyolite, with slate fragments. The
Roecliffe agglomerate, another extraordinarily coarse rock, consists
of slate fragments imbedded in an andesitic matrix, some of the blocks
of slate being six feet long. The finer tuffs have been ascertained
to consist of felsitic or andesitic detritus, sometimes forming
exceedingly compact flinty rocks or hornstones.
In this thick accumulation of detrital rocks we are presented with
a series of alternations of coarser and finer pyroclastic material,
interstratified among green, grey and purple slates and grits, which
probably represent the non-volcanic sediments of the time of eruption.
The succession of strata bears witness to a long series of eruptions
of varying intensity, but culminating at two distinct periods in
the discharge of huge blocks of rock (Benscliffe and Roecliffe
agglomerates).
After some search I have been unable to detect a single vesicular
fragment among the stones in the breccias and tuffs, and Messrs. Hill
and Bonney were not more successful. Not a trace of anything in the
least degree scoriaceous is anywhere to be found. The paste in which
the blocks lie consists of such fine material as would result from the
trituration of felsite and slate. It contains many broken crystals of
felspar, with grains of clear quartz. A gradation can be traced from
the coarser into the finer bands of volcanic and non-volcanic material,
fine slates being also interleaved with highly-felspathic partings of
grit.
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