The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain, Volume 2 (of 2)Geikie, Archibald
Science
The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain, Volume 2 (of 2)
Geikie, Archibald
Volcanoes -- Great Britain
The breccia remains singularly uniform in character throughout all
the necks. Its basic pumice presents much resemblance to that so
characteristic of the Carboniferous necks of Scotland, Derbyshire and
the Isle of Man. The abundant vesicles are generally spherical, and as
they have been filled with calcite or chlorite, they look like small
seeds scattered through a grey paste. Though I broke hundreds of the
lapilli, I did not notice among them any volcanic rock other than this
pumice. I am not aware of any other neck so homogeneously filled up
with one type of pyroclastic material, and certainly there is no other
example known in the British Isles of so large and uniform a mass of
fragmentary pumice.
Limestone fragments are not uncommon in this breccia. They resemble
the strata around the vents. Pieces of the adjacent cherts may also be
observed. In one or two cases, the limestone fragments were found by
me to have an exceptionally crystalline texture, which may possibly
indicate a certain degree of marmarosis, but on the whole there is
little trace of alteration.
The fragments of pumice in the breccia are bound together by a cement
of calcite. In fact the rock is, so to speak, saturated with calcareous
material, which, besides filling up the interstices between the
lapilli, has permeated the pumice and filled up such of its vesicles as
are not occupied by some chloritic infiltration.
I did not observe unmistakable evidence that any part of the breccia is
stratified and intercalated among the limestones, nor any vestige of
ashy material in these limestones. But it is possible that traces of
such interstratification may occur in the low ground to the north-west
of Croghan Hill, which I did not examine.
In only two places did I notice even a semblance of the intercalation
of limestone in the breccia. One of these is at Gorteen, where a
band of limestone strata a few feet thick is underlain and overlain
by breccia. But though the superposition of the layers of finely
stratified dark limestone and chert on the breccia is well seen and
thoroughly defined, no lapilli or ashy material are to be seen in
the limestone. Detached pieces of similar limestone and chert occur
in the breccia. The band of stratified rock, if _in situ_, may be a
tongue projecting from the wall into the body of the neck, like some
instances already cited from Scotland, but more probably it is really a
large included mass lying within the vent itself. The breccia here as
elsewhere is entirely without any trace of stratification. The second
locality occurs at the most easterly neck north of Coole House, where
the limestones, rapidly undulating, seem at last to plunge below the
breccia, which shows a series of parallel divisional planes suggestive
of bedding. But these may be only joint-structures, for there is no
stratification of the component materials of the rock.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account