Some rocks lead a quiet life. Stable parts of continental crust just sit there for billions of years, doing nothing. In the oceans things are much more dynamic. Live fast, die young, stay pretty is the motto of oceanic crust. It goes on one of the most amazing journeys rock can take. Along the way… Continue reading Oceanic crust – that sinking feeling
Category: metamorphism
Eclogite: mysterious visitor from the deep
Fifty kilometres is not far. World-class marathon runners run 42km in a little over 2 hours. They only move along the earth’s surface though. Getting to 50 kilometres below your feet is a different thing entirely. It’s a place of crushing pressure and meltingly high temperatures, somewhere human beings will never go. There is a… Continue reading Eclogite: mysterious visitor from the deep
The biggest pile of sand the world has ever seen
The Moine, a set of sedimentary rocks found in furthest north-west Scotland have enjoyed at least three cycles of metamorphism and deformation. My only sample from here is a migmatitic gneiss, so when I heard about people studying sedimentology in the Moine, my mind was a little bit boggled – gneisses have lost all trace… Continue reading The biggest pile of sand the world has ever seen
Channel flow – hot rocks, big glaciers and the world’s tallest mountains
Leonardo da Vinci, famed artist and Renaissance “Renaissance Man” made some interesting remarks about Geology. When he looked at rocks in the Alps containing fossil molluscs, it was clear to his trained eye that the fossils were near identical to shells formed by creatures in the sea. That fossils are the remains of ancient creatures… Continue reading Channel flow – hot rocks, big glaciers and the world’s tallest mountains