View allAll Photos Tagged METAMORPHIC
"The Vishnu Group had its beginnings about 2 billion years ago in Precambrian time . . . This is the metamorphic rock now exposed at the bottom of the canyon in the Inner Gorge. Geologists call this dark-colored, garnet-studded layer the Vishnu Schist." Wikipedia
I liked how this looked like molten wax, even though it is some of the hardest rock.
I rafted with Arizona Raft Adventures AZRA
Thanks to SascoAZ for this answer to why this is named Vishnu Schist
"Geologists frequently name rock layers after surrounding landmarks (especially if the landmark is near an outcrop of the layer that is a good representation of the type). For example, the Hermit Shale layer in the canyon is named for Hermit Canyon where that rock layer is easily reached and where it was first scientifically described in detail.
Each of the rock layers that you mention derived their name from nearby canyon buttes and mesas. Specifically the Vishnu Schist was named by geologist Charles Walcott in the 1880s after Vishnu Temple, a prominent rock formation on the north side of the canyon near Cape Royale. The Brahma Schist was named by geologists Campbell and Maxson in the 1930s after Brahma Temple, a butte overlooking Bright Angel Canyon. I am not sure who named the Rama Schist (probably Campbell and Maxson), but it probably derived its name from Rama Temple, a rock spire near Vishnu Temple. All of these landmarks can be seen from the major overlooks on the South Rim.
The logical next question is how did these mesas and buttes get their names in the first place? Many of the canyon's landmarks were named by geologist Clarence Dutton who published one of the earliest (and best) detailed geologic studies of the canyon in 1882. Dutton believed that the canyon was such an important and impressive feature on the planet, that the names of its features should reflect all the world's cultures and thus he chose many names from mythologies and legends from around the world. Other examples of canyon landmarks named in this way are Wotan's Throne, Cheops Pyramid, Budda Temple, Solomon Temple, Jupiter Temple and Tower of Ra (all of these are major buttes, spires or mesas in the canyon).
Source(s):
Arizona resident, frequent Grand Canyon visitor and hiker, and historian who has researched and written about scientific studies in the canyon.
For an excellent overview of the early canyon geologists and their impact on how we view the canyon today, I recommend the excellent book "How the Canyon Became Grand" by Stephen Pyne
Dutton's classic work (where many of the formations were officially named for the first time) is "Tertiary History of the Grand Canon District" (published the United States Geological Survey in 1882 and republished by the University of Arizona Press in 2001)"
Kyanitic eclogite from the Cretaceous of Slovenia. (~6.2 centimeters across at its widest)
Eclogite is an attractive, scarce, crystalline-textured, very high-grade metamorphic rock. It is dominated by red garnet (pyrope or almandine) and green omphacite pyroxene. Eclogite appears to be moderately common in portions of the upper mantle, but occurs in few places at the Earth’s surface. Eclogites have the same chemistry as basalts and gabbros (= oceanic crustal rocks), but have different mineralogies. Eclogites form by very high grade metamorphism of oceanic crust at mantle depths along subduction zones. Uplift of eclogites back to the surface often involves some retrograde metamorphism and the formation of new minerals, resulting in retrograde eclogites.
The eclogite seen here is from the Eastern Alps in Slovenia. It has a kyanite component. Kyanite is a bluish to bluish-gray aluminum silicate mineral - Al2SiO5. (See: www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/albums/72157677871157642) The resulting rock is red and green and blue - a remarkable color combination. Click on the photo to zoom in to see the bluish kyanite.
Age: eclogite-facies metamorphism in the early Late Cretaceous, ~90 to 95 Ma
Locality: unrecorded/undisclosed site in the Pohorje Mountains (possibly at or near the town of Fošt), southeastern margin of the Eastern Alps, Slovenska Bistrica Municipality, northeastern Slovenia
This is a view of Precambrian layers along the Colorado River. Mostly there is Precambrian Metamorphic Schist (including Vishnu and Brahma) and Precambrian Granite (including Zoroaster). These layers are over 1billion years old. I believe this is Vishnu Schist with an intrusive vein of Zoroaster Granite. Any clarification or correction will be appreciated.
I went on a non-motorized Raft trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon with Arizona Raft Adventures from May 16 through May 31. Four Oar rafts, a Dory, and a paddle raft.
AZRA has perfected Colorado River / Grand Canyon rafting. The guides were great, the food was great. Other than the weather, the experience was great.
I went with the idea that this was not a photo adventure. I was going to enjoy the experience and the ride. So I don't have photos of our put in at Lee's Ferry. But you know that you can't get that photo bug out of your system. I did not take my good cameras. This is a nice little Olympus TG-5. Everything takes a beating on a trip like this. It came out a little worse for wear but held up like a champion. On a trip like this you get sand in places you never knew you had places.
GRCA1919
P5220190 acd2-SharpenAI-Focus
Like to see the pictures as LARGE as your screen? Just click on this Slideshow : www.flickr.com/photos/reurinkjan/sets/72157624932250006/s...
Rock formations between the towns from Lhagang to Bame,skirting a remarkable needle-sharp range of black mylonite peaks,which are unique to Tibet.
Bame བ་ མེ་ Metamorphic Stones Forest
Marble is a Calc-Silicate Metamorphic Rock. The calcite in Marble responds effervesces vigorously with cold, dilute (1:5) hydrochloric acid, but dolomitic marble will do so inly if it is first reduced to a powder or if the acid is hot. This image and it's counterpart shows what happens at the surface when HCl is added to Calc-Silicate Marble.
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Illustrated metamorphic trade card depicting two women standing outside of a bedroom, one peeping through the keyhole of the closed door. The open flap shows a woman, "Mrs. Brown," attired in a corset and undergarments looking at her reflection in a mirror. Contains advertising text printed on verso: Adjustable duplex corset. The best corset in the world. Perfect in shape, and the most comfortable and durable corset known. Double bone, double steel, double seams. Warranted not to rip. Ask for it! See that the word "Duplex" is stamped on every corset. Made only by the Bortree M’f’g Co., Jackson, Mich. Office & salesroom 15 and 17 Mercer St. New York. Image 3 of 3.
The Scottish Highlands are made up of metamorphic and igneous rocks. Their features show that they formed during a great mountain-building episode, as plates carrying northern and southern Britain collided. Evidence from radio-active minerals in the rocks tells us that this happened between 470 and 400 million years ago.
Much more recently, the area was covered by ice during global climatic cold periods (Ice Ages). Glaciers that formed then, like glaciers in Norway or New Zealand today, had enormous erosive power because the ice contains rocks gouged from the valley floor or fallen from the mountains to either side. This ice-with-rocks scrapes along like a giant strip of very coarse sandpaper, carving out deep, U-shaped valleys like Glen Coe. Fossil evidence shows that the last glaciers in Britain melted around 10,000 years ago.
Español:
Las Tierras Altas de Escocia están formadas por rocas metamórficas e ígneas. Sus características muestran que se formaron durante un episodio de gran activad en formación de montañas, cuando las placas que sostienen el norte y el sur de Gran Bretaña chocaron. La evidencia de minerales radioactivos en las rocas nos indica que ocurrió hace 470- 400 millones de años atrás.
En un periodo más reciente, el área fue cubierta por el hielo durante los periodos fríos de cambio climático (Edad de Hielo). Los glaciares que se formaron entonces, como los glaciares de Noruega o Nueva Zelanda, tenían un enorme poder erosivo porque el hielo contiene rocas excavadas desde el fondo del valle o caídas desde las montañas de ambos lados. Estas hielo con piedras erosionó profundamente, como una banda gigante de papel de lija, valles en forma de U como Glen Coe. La evidencia fósil muestra que los últimos glaciares en Gran Bretaña se derritieron hace 10000 años atrás.
Esta foto tiene derechos de autor. Por favor, no la utilice sin mi conocimiento y autorización. Gracias.
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved.
It was raining in June Lake and Mammoth on Wednesday morning, but the further south we drove, the better the weather. In this shot of the Eastern Sierra, you can see some reddish rocks. This is the remnant of volcanic rock that spewed over the granite mountains.
More than 100 million years ago, granite formed deep underground. The range started to uplift 4 million years ago, and erosion by glaciers exposed the granite and formed the light-colored mountains and cliffs that make up the range. The uplift caused a wide range of elevations and climates in the Sierra, which are reflected by the presence of five life zones.
In the Cretaceous, a subduction zone formed at the edge of the continent; an oceanic plate started to dive beneath the North American plate. Magma formed through the subduction of the ancient Farallon Plate rose in plumes (plutons) deep underground, their combined mass forming what is called the Sierra Nevada batholith. These plutons formed at various times, from 115-million to 87-million years ago. The earlier plutons formed in the western half of the Sierra, while the later plutons formed in the eastern half of the Sierra. By 65-million years ago, the proto-Sierra Nevada had been worn down to a range of rolling low mountains, a few thousand feet high.
Twenty million years ago, crustal extension associated with the Basin and Range Province caused extensive volcanism in the Sierra.[18] About 4-million years ago, the Sierra Nevada started to form: a block of crust between the Coast Range and the Basin and Range Province started to tilt to the west. Rivers started cutting deep canyons on both sides of the range. The Earth's climate cooled, and ice ages started about 2.5-million years ago. Glaciers carved out characteristic U-shaped canyons throughout the Sierra. The combination of river and glacier erosion exposed the uppermost portions of the plutons emplaced millions of years before, leaving only a remnant of metamorphic rock on top of some Sierra peaks.
In this shot of the Eastern Sierra the reddish rocks are remnants of that volcanic rock.
Uplift of the Sierra Nevada continues today, especially along its eastern side. This uplift causes large earthquakes, such as the Lone Pine earthquake of 1872.
Prompts: an incredibly creative street art mural, graffiti, photo realistic, 3D --ar 16:9 --style raw --chaos 15
Created with #midjourney #photoshop #TopazGigapixelAI
Thank you for your visit, faves, and kind comments. 😊
© AI Art Legends 2022
8th Century. Isle of Islay. Inner Hebrides.
It seems reasonable to say that craftsmen from the Isle of Iona to the north worked locally on the particularly resistant schist ‘epidorite’ stone. The sheer quantity of Celtic braiding, spirals, bosses and interlace, and the chronological position of the cross close to an interface between post-protohistorical rites and historical Christian rites, makes the Kildalton Cross of interest to historians, theologians and prehistorians alike. Presumably the elements chosen as decoration were seen as relevant for the spiritual community itself and for the local populations. Ideas of assimilation and phase change of spiritual values associated with a 'metamorphic' vision of Celtic Christianity.
The Kildalton cross is in effect an 'illuminated' cross, with arms and junctions holding visual keystones and ornaments, as decoration and references of narrative allegorical episode. One of the earliest Illuminated manuscripts of the British Isles is the 'Book of Kells' which was produced by the same greater community of early St Columban Monks (from the Isle of Iona) who were responsable for the Kildalton cross. This association asks that it be considered that the cross was originally decorated with colour (an idea that has been put forward).
The elements visible on the cross are available for visitors to see on a graphic (reproduced via this link). Some drawings seem to tip an idea of line that is not necessarily obvious:
www.scotiana.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Islay-Kildalt...
Side arms right : Appears to be a man with a staff receiving a pious follower who bends before him at an alter (St Columba passing on his authority?) www.flickr.com/photos/93453066@N00/14728068055/in/pool-ea.... This image is often quoted as being of Abraham and Isaac, so I can only imagine that theologians recognise it as a classic 8th century representation regularly associated with texts on the story of Isaac. With this story, human life is offered value and human sacrifice is rejected in favour of animal sacrifice. Just such a debate may have been part of the cultural environment of the Neolithic. Might a pre-Celtic "Bell beaker" allegory have found its way into the Book of Genesis?
Side arm left : Another image of a man receiving a follower (or animal) with a staff, or, an image of a man with a club hitting a head of another man. This element is reported to be a depiction of of Cain murdering Abel - a story of a divisive family dispute over primary issues of agricultural style; a dispute that turned to murder, and where the murderer is then shown to loose his position in the theater of life itself and be cursed as a wanderer or lost soul. As the Mesolithic ground slowly to a halt and the Neolithic coalesced into the Bronze Age, mankind will have needed all of his skills of 'society', goodwill and common sense. Allegorical stories of archetypal dispute may have been held as examples to help new generations as they steered paths over once common lands. Old stories that threaded through the smoke of camp fires throughout the Neolithic before refusing to to be ignored by early spiritual books?
Top arm : Two angels. With games of light, there are times when a glance through a valley frame takes the eye to a far away snow capped hill or mountain. The peak as the head and the foothills as wings. From deeper prehistory, where Venus hills assigned spiritual definition to greater landscapes, just such a vision might be interpreted as the spirit of the Venus hill rising – pre Christian 'angels'. A second example: I have translated stories from the Occitane language via French around the subject of slow growth oak trees. Here a thin soil keeps the tree small. There is so little water in the wood that it can be cut and burned without need of drying. Just such trees often finish presenting as stacks of wide branch arms, like 'trees of life' that provide structure to help local woodcutters navigate for their kindle and twig. In the reported episode, it was told that young ladies on hot summers evenings would play at being angels on these horizontal branches. Seen from afar, through a moonlight haze, others may have mistaken the scene...
Top arm (middle) : David killing a lion with sheep in background. For a late prehistoric shepherd, wolves, bears and wild dogs might all cause fright, chaos, loss and accident. Cave lions roamed the paleolithic and with long distance travel and trade, stories of their legend may never have truly become 'extinct', and although real Lions may have been witnessed by early Pilgrims on their trips to the eastern Mediterranean, the 'stories' may have been eagerly received by shepherds keen to see their myths land as truths.
Top arm (directly above the disc) : A design with two birds. Whilst it is usual to read that these represent peacocks (a far away bird often liked with representations of paradise and Roman Empire ornament) no peacock has ever stood or looked like this. The nearest birds to the represented lines may be a flightless 5kg bird that stood to around 85cm. The bird provided eggs, meat, oil, bait and warm feathers for prehistoric communities across the Atlantic (see Norwegian middens analysis). Couples may have been loyal, returning to the same place and partner each year, meeting beaks face to face with the iconic form seen on the cross. The bird bred on rocky islands, such as the many opposite the coasts of the Isles of Islay, Mull and Harris. Although hunting of the flightless bird was banned in the British Isles, one thousand years after the Kildalton Cross was dropped into its keystone, the last British example of the Great Auk (Atlantic penguin) was killed 200km north west of Iona on an Outer Hebredine Isle of St Kilda. The year was 1840 (by this time hunters sublimated their compulsion and explained that they were hunting witches…). The last ever in existence was killed on the 3rd of June 1844 in Icelandic waters by exhaustive collectioners. Rather than an fantasy peacock icon, the birds may have been a reference to local life and tradition. Sea Lions chase ‘penguins’ within their range, and watching the graphic Auks pop out of the sea to relative safety on the 40 or so shallow rocks and micro-islands that lye just off the coast behind the Kildalton Cross must have been a pleasure to see for early settlers. It may also be worth looking to see if a second colony was not once perched to exploite the fish of the North Channel, the Solway Firth and the Irish Sea, a distant colony on rocks nearer to Islay or Mull - a colony that may signal vivid lifestyles that Hebridean people had shared through the passages of the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Iron ages. The Great Auk's Islands of St Kilda also have archive stocks of Soay Neolithic sheep that graze aside simple stone constructions and rare neolithic vestiges. Until recently the remote islands' human population lived a lifestyle that included fowling sea birds for their meat, oil, eggs and feathers. The isle of Texa is also close-by to the Kildalton Cross, and it rises to 48m above sea level. There are four larger 'islands' just to the east of Kildaltan that rise to around 6m above sea level to look out to the southern rocks of the Isle of Gigha. Old Great Auk colonies turn to grass...
A stuffed Great Auk is on show at the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow.
Main rise (top under disc) The Virgin and Child, an iconography found on St. Martin's Cross and St. Oran's Cross on the Isle of Iona; so similar to the Kildalton Cross's scene that it is used as a 'proof' that followers from the Monastery were responsable. Elsewhere I argue that Venus hills provided a natural ‘cathedral’ for mother nature, a loci that seeded the lifeforce of a landscape. It is probable that the mythology of the Venus hills did not require 'fecundation', as this would add endless complication, which illustrates that ideas of 'virgin birth' may have followed through from notions common to deeper prehistorical belief systems.
Regarding the wheel cross, it has been argued elsewhere that early Irish Missionaries juxtaposed a Christian cross with a pre-Christian sun symbol to show to local communities that the 'new' religion did not negate the importance of existing belief systems. Not to be confused with Roman Sun Gods as these islands escaped Roman influence. As the medieval period progressed, these early links with the post Bell Beaker 'Celtic' metaphysic were all but eliminated during the waves of religious centralization, stigmatization, belittling, chip shifting and victimisation. Local religious communities that led by example were largely replaced by the centralized religious hierarchies, governmental/religious hybrids and local representatives/specialists. An ironical push towards hierarchical systems that had been developed by, for example, the Roman Empire.
AJM 07.11.18
This is a cut and polished slab of gneiss, a high-grade metamorphic rock, in which the effects of shearing (upper part of photo) and folding (middle and lower right) are well defined. Scale: approx. 75 x 50 cm.
Copyright J.R. Devaney
Do you hear,
The cadence of the stones
Dancing on the talus of my dreams?
The metamorphic rhythms
From a raven's wings
Thrumming through the
Marrow of my bones.
carl purcell
watercolor on Arches 140lb rough. 11 X 14 inches. I have incorporated some ravens into the image of stones as a tribute to my brother crow. I hope they are not too obvious. There are three or four.
"Quaker Rolled White Oats. Manufactured by the American Cereal Co. Address: Chicago, Ill., U.S.A. Use only Quaker brand rolled oats. Pure Quaker Oats. 2 pounds. A Family Affair."
Five views of a nineteenth-century metamorphic trade card, which--as it's unfolded--changes from a Quaker Oats cereal box to a scene of children eating cereal at the breakfast table (with the Quaker Oats man lurking in the background).
Originally posted on Ipernity: Quaker Oats Metamorphic Trade Card.
Metamorphic core complex, having been raised 20 or miles from within the crust to expose the oldest known rocks in Nevada. More than 1 billion years old, possibly 3 to 4 billion years old.
I am a way for a while and will catch up when I can. Thank you very much for your comments.
View over Rippon Vineyard. April 30, 2016 Central Otago in the South Island of New Zealand.
The land upon which Rippon stands has been in the Mills family since 1913. The primary interest of all who work at Rippon is to grow wines which are an accurate reflection of the property. All Rippon wines are produced from the single vineyard on the shores of Lake Wanaka.
Central Otago: the only continental climate in New Zealand viticulture with high ultra violet light, long sunshine hours and highly refractive soils.
Wanaka: a more temperate climate relative to the rest of Central Otago due to its close proximity to the dividing mountains of the Southern Alps.
Lake Wanaka: the temperance of this large thermal mass, coupled with the protective nature of Ruby Island further softens Rippon’s microclimate.
Schist: the metamorphic mother rock, rich in foliated mica and quartzite is deposited as glacial moraines, coarse-layered gravels, ancient lake-bed clays and wind-blown loess.
You know, why humans are unique?
Cause they know how to share....
How to pass the knowledge of ages to their ancestors......
Sharing the wisdom and experience...
Supporting each other with affection and love...
Teaching the tender ones to grow up.
That's what keep this trend of civilization continue.
He is teaching the little boy how to relish the little pleasures of life.
Captured from a tea stall in University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Illustrated metamorphic trade card depicting two women standing outside of a bedroom, one peeping through the keyhole of the closed door. The open flap shows a woman, "Mrs. Brown," attired in a corset and undergarments looking at her reflection in a mirror. Contains advertising text printed on verso: Adjustable duplex corset. The best corset in the world. Perfect in shape, and the most comfortable and durable corset known. Double bone, double steel, double seams. Warranted not to rip. Ask for it! See that the word "Duplex" is stamped on every corset. Made only by the Bortree M’f’g Co., Jackson, Mich. Office & salesroom 15 and 17 Mercer St. New York. Image 1 of 3.
Illustrated metamorphic trade card depicting two women standing outside of a bedroom, one peeping through the keyhole of the closed door. The open flap shows a woman, "Mrs. Brown," attired in a corset and undergarments looking at her reflection in a mirror. Contains advertising text printed on verso: Adjustable duplex corset. The best corset in the world. Perfect in shape, and the most comfortable and durable corset known. Double bone, double steel, double seams. Warranted not to rip. Ask for it! See that the word "Duplex" is stamped on every corset. Made only by the Bortree M’f’g Co., Jackson, Mich. Office & salesroom 15 and 17 Mercer St. New York. Image 2 of 3.
Surfer - The Metamorphic Soul / Surfista - A Alma Metamórfica
1997
39.37 x 19.68 inches / 100 cm x 50 cm
Mixed media - Técnica mista
(acrylic, latex, markers)
Loch Tarff is a small freshwater loch approximately 1.25 km (0.78 mi) from the southeastern shore of Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands.
The loch is located in the hills that rise steeply from the eastern shore of Loch Ness and has an elevation of 292 metres (958 ft) ASL. It has a surface area of approximately 500,000 square metres with a prominent inlet to the northwest and a smaller inlet to the southwest. The loch is fed by a number of small streams, most of which enter its northeastern shore from the southern slopes of Beinn a' Bhacaidh. There are a number of islets in the loch, the largest of which, Eilean Ban, lies near its northeastern shore.
Geological evidence indicates that the loch was formed in the last Ice Age approximately 10,000 years ago, and is the result of glaciation that scoured the landscape. The surrounding rock is metamorphic, mostly schists, although there are also sedimentary conglomerates formed from the metamorphic and igneous strata in the fault scarp that comprises the Great Glen. Glacial sediments can be found to the south of the loch around the southern shore of Loch Ness.
By car, the loch is approximately 6.0 km (3.7 mi) from Fort Augustus, and is accessible by the B862 road, which runs along the eastern shore of the loch.
For walkers, the loch is located on the South Loch Ness Trail, approximately one and a half to two hours via an ascending route that rises 280 metres (920 ft) with two moderate inclines from the southern shore of Loch Ness at Fort Augustus.
Footage of the loch was used in the 1983 film Local Hero (in the scene immediately following the rabbit and the fog; the lead character's car, a Ford Cortina is stopped on the road). The scene is taken from the B862 looking westward and some of the loch's islets can be seen in the background.
The Highlands is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands. The term is also used for the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of A' Ghàidhealtachd literally means "the place of the Gaels" and traditionally, from a Gaelic-speaking point of view, includes both the Western Isles and the Highlands.
The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the population of the Highlands rose to around 300,000, but from c. 1841 and for the next 160 years, the natural increase in population was exceeded by emigration (mostly to Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and migration to the industrial cities of Scotland and England.) and passim The area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. At 9.1/km2 (24/sq mi) in 2012, the population density in the Highlands and Islands is less than one seventh of Scotland's as a whole.
The Highland Council is the administrative body for much of the Highlands, with its administrative centre at Inverness. However, the Highlands also includes parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Moray, North Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.
The Scottish Highlands is the only area in the British Isles to have the taiga biome as it features concentrated populations of Scots pine forest: see Caledonian Forest. It is the most mountainous part of the United Kingdom.
Between the 15th century and the mid-20th century, the area differed from most of the Lowlands in terms of language. In Scottish Gaelic, the region is known as the Gàidhealtachd, because it was traditionally the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, although the language is now largely confined to The Hebrides. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably but have different meanings in their respective languages. Scottish English (in its Highland form) is the predominant language of the area today, though Highland English has been influenced by Gaelic speech to a significant extent. Historically, the "Highland line" distinguished the two Scottish cultures. While the Highland line broadly followed the geography of the Grampians in the south, it continued in the north, cutting off the north-eastern areas, that is Eastern Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, from the more Gaelic Highlands and Hebrides.
Historically, the major social unit of the Highlands was the clan. Scottish kings, particularly James VI, saw clans as a challenge to their authority; the Highlands was seen by many as a lawless region. The Scots of the Lowlands viewed the Highlanders as backward and more "Irish". The Highlands were seen as the overspill of Gaelic Ireland. They made this distinction by separating Germanic "Scots" English and the Gaelic by renaming it "Erse" a play on Eire. Following the Union of the Crowns, James VI had the military strength to back up any attempts to impose some control. The result was, in 1609, the Statutes of Iona which started the process of integrating clan leaders into Scottish society. The gradual changes continued into the 19th century, as clan chiefs thought of themselves less as patriarchal leaders of their people and more as commercial landlords. The first effect on the clansmen who were their tenants was the change to rents being payable in money rather than in kind. Later, rents were increased as Highland landowners sought to increase their income. This was followed, mostly in the period 1760–1850, by agricultural improvement that often (particularly in the Western Highlands) involved clearance of the population to make way for large scale sheep farms. Displaced tenants were set up in crofting communities in the process. The crofts were intended not to provide all the needs of their occupiers; they were expected to work in other industries such as kelping and fishing. Crofters came to rely substantially on seasonal migrant work, particularly in the Lowlands. This gave impetus to the learning of English, which was seen by many rural Gaelic speakers to be the essential "language of work".
Older historiography attributes the collapse of the clan system to the aftermath of the Jacobite risings. This is now thought less influential by historians. Following the Jacobite rising of 1745 the British government enacted a series of laws to try to suppress the clan system, including bans on the bearing of arms and the wearing of tartan, and limitations on the activities of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Most of this legislation was repealed by the end of the 18th century as the Jacobite threat subsided. There was soon a rehabilitation of Highland culture. Tartan was adopted for Highland regiments in the British Army, which poor Highlanders joined in large numbers in the era of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1790–1815). Tartan had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people of the region, but in the 1820s, tartan and the kilt were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe. The international craze for tartan, and for idealising a romanticised Highlands, was set off by the Ossian cycle, and further popularised by the works of Walter Scott. His "staging" of the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish woollen industry. Individual clan tartans were largely designated in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity. This "Highlandism", by which all of Scotland was identified with the culture of the Highlands, was cemented by Queen Victoria's interest in the country, her adoption of Balmoral as a major royal retreat, and her interest in "tartenry".
Recurrent famine affected the Highlands for much of its history, with significant instances as late as 1817 in the Eastern Highlands and the early 1850s in the West. Over the 18th century, the region had developed a trade of black cattle into Lowland markets, and this was balanced by imports of meal into the area. There was a critical reliance on this trade to provide sufficient food, and it is seen as an essential prerequisite for the population growth that started in the 18th century. Most of the Highlands, particularly in the North and West was short of the arable land that was essential for the mixed, run rig based, communal farming that existed before agricultural improvement was introduced into the region.[a] Between the 1760s and the 1830s there was a substantial trade in unlicensed whisky that had been distilled in the Highlands. Lowland distillers (who were not able to avoid the heavy taxation of this product) complained that Highland whisky made up more than half the market. The development of the cattle trade is taken as evidence that the pre-improvement Highlands was not an immutable system, but did exploit the economic opportunities that came its way. The illicit whisky trade demonstrates the entrepreneurial ability of the peasant classes.
Agricultural improvement reached the Highlands mostly over the period 1760 to 1850. Agricultural advisors, factors, land surveyors and others educated in the thinking of Adam Smith were keen to put into practice the new ideas taught in Scottish universities. Highland landowners, many of whom were burdened with chronic debts, were generally receptive to the advice they offered and keen to increase the income from their land. In the East and South the resulting change was similar to that in the Lowlands, with the creation of larger farms with single tenants, enclosure of the old run rig fields, introduction of new crops (such as turnips), land drainage and, as a consequence of all this, eviction, as part of the Highland clearances, of many tenants and cottars. Some of those cleared found employment on the new, larger farms, others moved to the accessible towns of the Lowlands.
In the West and North, evicted tenants were usually given tenancies in newly created crofting communities, while their former holdings were converted into large sheep farms. Sheep farmers could pay substantially higher rents than the run rig farmers and were much less prone to falling into arrears. Each croft was limited in size so that the tenants would have to find work elsewhere. The major alternatives were fishing and the kelp industry. Landlords took control of the kelp shores, deducting the wages earned by their tenants from the rent due and retaining the large profits that could be earned at the high prices paid for the processed product during the Napoleonic wars.
When the Napoleonic wars finished in 1815, the Highland industries were affected by the return to a peacetime economy. The price of black cattle fell, nearly halving between 1810 and the 1830s. Kelp prices had peaked in 1810, but reduced from £9 a ton in 1823 to £3 13s 4d a ton in 1828. Wool prices were also badly affected. This worsened the financial problems of debt-encumbered landlords. Then, in 1846, potato blight arrived in the Highlands, wiping out the essential subsistence crop for the overcrowded crofting communities. As the famine struck, the government made clear to landlords that it was their responsibility to provide famine relief for their tenants. The result of the economic downturn had been that a large proportion of Highland estates were sold in the first half of the 19th century. T M Devine points out that in the region most affected by the potato famine, by 1846, 70 per cent of the landowners were new purchasers who had not owned Highland property before 1800. More landlords were obliged to sell due to the cost of famine relief. Those who were protected from the worst of the crisis were those with extensive rental income from sheep farms. Government loans were made available for drainage works, road building and other improvements and many crofters became temporary migrants – taking work in the Lowlands. When the potato famine ceased in 1856, this established a pattern of more extensive working away from the Highlands.
The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional and controversial subject, of enormous importance to the Highland economy, and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The poor crofters were politically powerless, and many of them turned to religion. They embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800. Most joined the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. The religious change energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords; it helped prepare them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League. Violence erupted, starting on the Isle of Skye, when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quietened when the government stepped in, passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. This contrasted with the Irish Land War underway at the same time, where the Irish were intensely politicised through roots in Irish nationalism, while political dimensions were limited. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, which listened to their pleas. The results included explicit security for the Scottish smallholders in the "crofting counties"; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and the creation of a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained their votes.
Today, the Highlands are the largest of Scotland's whisky producing regions; the relevant area runs from Orkney to the Isle of Arran in the south and includes the northern isles and much of Inner and Outer Hebrides, Argyll, Stirlingshire, Arran, as well as sections of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. (Other sources treat The Islands, except Islay, as a separate whisky producing region.) This massive area has over 30 distilleries, or 47 when the Islands sub-region is included in the count. According to one source, the top five are The Macallan, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Balvenie. While Speyside is geographically within the Highlands, that region is specified as distinct in terms of whisky productions. Speyside single malt whiskies are produced by about 50 distilleries.
According to Visit Scotland, Highlands whisky is "fruity, sweet, spicy, malty". Another review states that Northern Highlands single malt is "sweet and full-bodied", the Eastern Highlands and Southern Highlands whiskies tend to be "lighter in texture" while the distilleries in the Western Highlands produce single malts with a "much peatier influence".
The Scottish Reformation achieved partial success in the Highlands. Roman Catholicism remained strong in some areas, owing to remote locations and the efforts of Franciscan missionaries from Ireland, who regularly came to celebrate Mass. There remain significant Catholic strongholds within the Highlands and Islands such as Moidart and Morar on the mainland and South Uist and Barra in the southern Outer Hebrides. The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw somewhat greater success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In the 19th century, the evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly, appealing much more strongly than did the established church.
For the most part, however, the Highlands are considered predominantly Protestant, belonging to the Church of Scotland. In contrast to the Catholic southern islands, the northern Outer Hebrides islands (Lewis, Harris and North Uist) have an exceptionally high proportion of their population belonging to the Protestant Free Church of Scotland or the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides have been described as the last bastion of Calvinism in Britain and the Sabbath remains widely observed. Inverness and the surrounding area has a majority Protestant population, with most locals belonging to either The Kirk or the Free Church of Scotland. The church maintains a noticeable presence within the area, with church attendance notably higher than in other parts of Scotland. Religion continues to play an important role in Highland culture, with Sabbath observance still widely practised, particularly in the Hebrides.
In traditional Scottish geography, the Highlands refers to that part of Scotland north-west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which crosses mainland Scotland in a near-straight line from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. However the flat coastal lands that occupy parts of the counties of Nairnshire, Morayshire, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire are often excluded as they do not share the distinctive geographical and cultural features of the rest of the Highlands. The north-east of Caithness, as well as Orkney and Shetland, are also often excluded from the Highlands, although the Hebrides are usually included. The Highland area, as so defined, differed from the Lowlands in language and tradition, having preserved Gaelic speech and customs centuries after the anglicisation of the latter; this led to a growing perception of a divide, with the cultural distinction between Highlander and Lowlander first noted towards the end of the 14th century. In Aberdeenshire, the boundary between the Highlands and the Lowlands is not well defined. There is a stone beside the A93 road near the village of Dinnet on Royal Deeside which states 'You are now in the Highlands', although there are areas of Highland character to the east of this point.
A much wider definition of the Highlands is that used by the Scotch whisky industry. Highland single malts are produced at distilleries north of an imaginary line between Dundee and Greenock, thus including all of Aberdeenshire and Angus.
Inverness is regarded as the Capital of the Highlands, although less so in the Highland parts of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and Stirlingshire which look more to Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling as their commercial centres.
The Highland Council area, created as one of the local government regions of Scotland, has been a unitary council area since 1996. The council area excludes a large area of the southern and eastern Highlands, and the Western Isles, but includes Caithness. Highlands is sometimes used, however, as a name for the council area, as in the former Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern is also used to refer to the area, as in the former Northern Constabulary. These former bodies both covered the Highland council area and the island council areas of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.
Much of the Highlands area overlaps the Highlands and Islands area. An electoral region called Highlands and Islands is used in elections to the Scottish Parliament: this area includes Orkney and Shetland, as well as the Highland Council local government area, the Western Isles and most of the Argyll and Bute and Moray local government areas. Highlands and Islands has, however, different meanings in different contexts. It means Highland (the local government area), Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles in Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern, as in Northern Constabulary, refers to the same area as that covered by the fire and rescue service.
There have been trackways from the Lowlands to the Highlands since prehistoric times. Many traverse the Mounth, a spur of mountainous land that extends from the higher inland range to the North Sea slightly north of Stonehaven. The most well-known and historically important trackways are the Causey Mounth, Elsick Mounth, Cryne Corse Mounth and Cairnamounth.
Although most of the Highlands is geographically on the British mainland, it is somewhat less accessible than the rest of Britain; thus most UK couriers categorise it separately, alongside Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and other offshore islands. They thus charge additional fees for delivery to the Highlands, or exclude the area entirely. While the physical remoteness from the largest population centres inevitably leads to higher transit cost, there is confusion and consternation over the scale of the fees charged and the effectiveness of their communication, and the use of the word Mainland in their justification. Since the charges are often based on postcode areas, many far less remote areas, including some which are traditionally considered part of the lowlands, are also subject to these charges. Royal Mail is the only delivery network bound by a Universal Service Obligation to charge a uniform tariff across the UK. This, however, applies only to mail items and not larger packages which are dealt with by its Parcelforce division.
The Highlands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland is largely composed of ancient rocks from the Cambrian and Precambrian periods which were uplifted during the later Caledonian Orogeny. Smaller formations of Lewisian gneiss in the northwest are up to 3 billion years old. The overlying rocks of the Torridon Sandstone form mountains in the Torridon Hills such as Liathach and Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross.
These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of a more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and the Cuillin of Skye. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of Old Red Sandstone found principally along the Moray Firth coast and partially down the Highland Boundary Fault. The Jurassic beds found in isolated locations on Skye and Applecross reflect the complex underlying geology. They are the original source of much North Sea oil. The Great Glen is formed along a transform fault which divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands.
The entire region was covered by ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages, save perhaps for a few nunataks. The complex geomorphology includes incised valleys and lochs carved by the action of mountain streams and ice, and a topography of irregularly distributed mountains whose summits have similar heights above sea-level, but whose bases depend upon the amount of denudation to which the plateau has been subjected in various places.
Climate
The region is much warmer than other areas at similar latitudes (such as Kamchatka in Russia, or Labrador in Canada) because of the Gulf Stream making it cool, damp and temperate. The Köppen climate classification is "Cfb" at low altitudes, then becoming "Cfc", "Dfc" and "ET" at higher altitudes.
Places of interest
An Teallach
Aonach Mòr (Nevis Range ski centre)
Arrochar Alps
Balmoral Castle
Balquhidder
Battlefield of Culloden
Beinn Alligin
Beinn Eighe
Ben Cruachan hydro-electric power station
Ben Lomond
Ben Macdui (second highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Ben Nevis (highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Cairngorms National Park
Cairngorm Ski centre near Aviemore
Cairngorm Mountains
Caledonian Canal
Cape Wrath
Carrick Castle
Castle Stalker
Castle Tioram
Chanonry Point
Conic Hill
Culloden Moor
Dunadd
Duart Castle
Durness
Eilean Donan
Fingal's Cave (Staffa)
Fort George
Glen Coe
Glen Etive
Glen Kinglas
Glen Lyon
Glen Orchy
Glenshee Ski Centre
Glen Shiel
Glen Spean
Glenfinnan (and its railway station and viaduct)
Grampian Mountains
Hebrides
Highland Folk Museum – The first open-air museum in the UK.
Highland Wildlife Park
Inveraray Castle
Inveraray Jail
Inverness Castle
Inverewe Garden
Iona Abbey
Isle of Staffa
Kilchurn Castle
Kilmartin Glen
Liathach
Lecht Ski Centre
Loch Alsh
Loch Ard
Loch Awe
Loch Assynt
Loch Earn
Loch Etive
Loch Fyne
Loch Goil
Loch Katrine
Loch Leven
Loch Linnhe
Loch Lochy
Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park
Loch Lubnaig
Loch Maree
Loch Morar
Loch Morlich
Loch Ness
Loch Nevis
Loch Rannoch
Loch Tay
Lochranza
Luss
Meall a' Bhuiridh (Glencoe Ski Centre)
Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary at Loch Creran
Rannoch Moor
Red Cuillin
Rest and Be Thankful stretch of A83
River Carron, Wester Ross
River Spey
River Tay
Ross and Cromarty
Smoo Cave
Stob Coire a' Chàirn
Stac Polly
Strathspey Railway
Sutherland
Tor Castle
Torridon Hills
Urquhart Castle
West Highland Line (scenic railway)
West Highland Way (Long-distance footpath)
Wester Ross
Marble is a Calc-Silicate Metamorphic Rock. The calcite in Marble responds effervesces vigorously with cold, dilute (1:5) hydrochloric acid, but dolomitic marble will do so inly if it is first reduced to a powder or if the acid is hot. This image and it's counterpart shows what happens at the surface when HCl is added to Calc-Silicate Marble.
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Old Hill Cemetery in Londonderry (est. 1733) appears to be the town's oldest. It has some very old and beautiful stones that I'll have to photograph with better light to bring up the detail. This session was all about the fog though.
A more detailed view of Si Phum Corner.
It looks like places have sunk, making the layers wavy, which reminded me of banded metamorphic rock.
Scotland
From Ben Nevis Geology site:
An Steall Falls and Hanging Valley – Leaving the car park, you’ll have to take a walk to this last one. The gorge to get there is a spectacular feature in itself but is overshadowed by the main reward of this walk. Once you get through the gorge, the Glen opens out dramatically and you see ‘An Steall’ (the spout) waterfall cascading down a high wall of white quartzite rock. It spills out of Coire a Mhail, which is a superb example of a glacially carved hanging valley. It stands at a massive height of 120m (390ft) in a single drop. This makes it the second highest waterfall in Scotland.
Novaculite in the Paleozoic of Arkansas, USA.
Metamorphic rocks result from intense alteration of any previously existing rocks by heat and/or pressure and/or chemical change. This can happen as a result of regional metamorphism (large-scale tectonic events, such as continental collision or subduction), burial metamorphism (super-deep burial), contact metamorphism (by the heat & chemicals from nearby magma or lava), hydrothermal metamorphism (by superheated groundwater), shear metamorphism (in or near a fault zone), or shock metamorphism (by an impact event). Other categories include thermal metamorphism, kinetic metamorphism, and nuclear metamorphism. Many metamorphic rocks have a foliated texture, but some are crystalline or glassy.
Novaculite is a local name in Arkansas for metachert (= metamorphosed chert). The physical properties of chert and metachert are quite similar (in some cases, not distinctive at all) - hard, dense, relatively smooth surfaces, sharp broken edges, and conchoidal fracture. The metamorphism involves recrystallization of the chert's microscopic quartz grains.
Information given about Arkansas novaculite invariably mentions its use as a whetstone, which is a sharpening stone for knives. This is not a geologic definition. So, prima facie, “novaculite” shouldn't be a geologic term.
It turns out that metachert in Arkansas is distinctly, but variably, microporous. This is what makes novaculite different from ordinary chert. The texture, look, and feel of most novaculite is indeed different from chert. Some Arkansas novaculite is not microporous, and is exactly like non-metamorphosed chert. Most novaculites, however, are somewhat rough, even on cut surfaces. The roughness is a consequence of the microporosity. All that said, I’d still prefer to ditch the term “novaculite” and use “metachert” instead. A rose by any other name is still a rose.
Arkansas novaculites are composed of quartz grains that range from about 5 to 20 microns in size.
Stratigraphy: Arkansas Novaculite, Middle Devonian to upper Lower Mississippian
Locality: next to trailhead for Shortcut Trail, near the crest of Hot Springs Mountain (Hot Springs Mountain Anticline), Hot Springs National Park, ZigZag Mountains, Arkansas, USA (vicinity of 34° 30.939’ North latitude, 93° 02.863’ West longitude)
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Info. at:
This is just a small part of the Cuillin Mountain range . The black Cuillins are largely made of Gabbro metamorphic rock giving the mountains their dark colour . What you are seeing is the magma chamber of a long gone volcano that with weathering and uplift reveals these amazing mountains , making it a great place for Geologist and Volcanoligists to study.
d95965a. Canavalia rosea on metamorphics.
The same rock from a different angle: www.flickr.com/photos/58828131@N07/24403484339/in/datepos...