Category Archives: tectonics

Dalradian – a Celtic Supergroup

Posted on 4 February, 2013 by Metageologist

Geology is such a great thing to study because it involves making so many connections through time and space, switching scales from the cosmic to the atomic. This means that challenge for this series of posts about the geology of … Continue reading →

Categories: Ireland, Scotland, sediments, tectonics

Cratons – old and strong

Posted on 19 December, 2012 by Metageologist

Cratons are pieces of continents that have been stable for a over a billion years. As earth’s plates drift along, mountains periodically rise and fall, plate boundaries appear and disappear. But cratons are like great-grandmothers at family gatherings, while younger … Continue reading →

Categories: eclogites, mountains, subduction, tectonics

Erosion makes mountains beautiful

Posted on 9 December, 2012 by Metageologist

The thing that makes mountains so beautiful and fascinating,is not so much their height as their steepness. Climbers and trekkers flock to the High Himalaya, not to get altitude sickness but for the grandeur of the landscape, the experience of … Continue reading →

Categories: Glacial, mountains, tectonics

Mantle support of topography – a swell idea

Posted on 12 November, 2012 by Metageologist

Why are some bits of the earth higher than others? Finding mountains near plate boundaries is easy to explain – various forms of plate collision cause the crust to thicken and the surface to rise. What about Southern Africa? Reaching … Continue reading →

Categories: England, mountains, Scotland, sediments, tectonics