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
In the neighbourhood of Largo, further important evidence is presented,
confirming and extending this conclusion. The highest member of the
Upper Coal-measures, consisting of various red sandstones, with red
and purple clays, shales, thin coals and ironstones, is prolonged
from the Fife coal-field in a tongue which extends eastward beyond
the village of Lower Largo. It is well displayed on the shore, where
every bed may be followed in succession along the beach for a space
of nearly two miles. Two volcanic necks, presenting the same features
as those which pierce the older portions of the Carboniferous system
to the east, rise through these red rocks. We are thus carried not
only beyond the time of the Carboniferous Limestone, but beyond the
close of the very latest stage of the Carboniferous period in Central
Scotland. Connected with these and other vents farther north, there
is a large area of tuff which has been thrown out upon the faulted
and greatly denuded Carboniferous rocks. It may be traced passing
from the red Upper Coal-measures across the large fault which here
separates that formation from the Carboniferous Limestone, and
extending inland athwart different horizons of the latter series.
Outlying fragmentary cakes of it may be seen resting on the upturned
edges of the sandstones, shales and coal-seams, even at a distance
of some miles towards the north-west, proving that the fragmentary
materials discharged from the vents spread over a considerable area.
The accompanying section (Fig. 208) may serve as an illustration of the
relation between this sheet of bedded tuff and the underlying rocks.
Though interstratified volcanic rocks occur in the Carboniferous
system of the East of Fife, no connection has been traced between them
and any of the vents now referred to. While none of these vents can
be proved to be of Carboniferous age, it is of course possible that
such may be the true date of some of them. Others, nevertheless, and
probably much the largest number, judged from the data just given, may
be regarded as probably post-Carboniferous. Those which happen to rise
through the uppermost Coal-measures do not appear to be distinguishable
by any essential characters from those which pierce indifferently
the Carboniferous Limestone series and Calciferous Sandstones of the
East of Fife. They seem to be all one connected aggregate, resembling
each other alike in their external characters, internal structure and
component materials, and the limit of their age must be determined
by the geological horizon of the youngest formation which they
traverse. By this process of reasoning I reach the conclusion that
this remarkable series of old volcanoes in the East of Scotland not
improbably dates from the same time as that of Ayrshire and Nithsdale,
already described.
[Illustration: Fig. 209.--View of Largo Law from the east (the crag on
the left, at the base of the cone, is a portion of a basalt-stream. See
Fig. 226).]
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