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
In this northern district, among the sediments which overlie the
Garth grit, layers of fine tuff begin to make their appearance, which
north of Cwm Orthin thicken out into a considerable mass between
the grit and the lowest of the great agglomerates. These tuffs,
which mark the beginning of the volcanic eruptions of the district,
are followed by a band of slate which in some places has yielded
a _Lingula_, _Orthis Carausii_, and a _Tetragraptus_, and points
to an interval of quiescence in the volcanic history. We now enter
upon an enormous thickness of agglomerates and tuffs separated by
several bands of slate. Taking advantage of the slaty intercalations,
Messrs. Jennings and Williams have divided this great accumulation of
fragmentary volcanic material into three beds (Fig. 49). The matrix
of the agglomerates is compact and pale, so as to resemble and to
have been called "felstone," but showing its fragmentary nature on
weathered surfaces. The blocks imbedded in this paste range up to
sometimes as much as 11 feet in length by 4 feet in width. Their minute
petrographical characters have not been studied, but the blocks are
stated to consist for the most part of "slaty and schistose fragments
mixed with rounded pebbles of fine-grained 'felstone.'" They are heaped
together as in true agglomerates. In the upper agglomerate, fragments
of cleaved slate containing _Lingula_ have been observed.
The name of "felstone" is restricted by Messrs. Jennings and Williams
to certain fine-grained varieties of rock, of which a thin band lies
at the base of the lower agglomerate, while another of considerably
greater importance occurs in the middle of the upper agglomerate. These
bands consist of a fine compact greenish base, and weather with a dull
white crust; sometimes, as in the thicker sheet, a columnar structure
shows itself. Whether these rocks are to be regarded as lavas or sills,
or even as finer varieties of tuff, is a question that awaits further
inquiry. But it is clear, from the investigation of the two observers
just cited, that the pyroclastic constituents must vastly preponderate
in the volcanic series over the northern part of the region. All these
rocks, whether coarse or fine-grained, appear to be rather acid in
composition, and no evidence has yet been obtained of a sequence among
them from a more basic to a more acid series, as in Cader Idris.
The highest agglomerate bed of the Manod and Moelwyn area is covered by
slates which contain Llandeilo graptolites. In this way, by means of
palæontological evidence, the upward and downward limits of the Arenig
volcanic series in this part of Wales are definitely fixed.
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