Geology tour to Stonehaven

Last night we were invited to join the local geological society’s evening ramble to the highland boundary fault.

Ian, who lead the evening, is completing a PhD in sedimentology / stratigraphy. Others had varying degrees of knowledge through being amateur enthusiasts or like David, had worked in a related discipline.

We set off at 6pm and headed out along the A90, parked the car a little north of Stonehaven and walked out to the coast.

Ian pointed out lots of interesting features including folded rock.

I couldn’t quite get the concept until he reminded me of old experiments with bunsen burners and glass rods I had done in the dim and distant past.

A glass rod is a brittle thing which breaks if you bend it; but heat it over a bunsen burner and it can bend. So these rocks too, were, in their own dim and distant past heated and bent (weren’t we all) and eventually folded in on themselves (ahem!).

Some got so bent that even their folds folded - which is what Ian is pointing out.

I have to say the folding business took it all out of me and after grasping one big point of the evening I felt I could relax and ponder the rest of the environment.

Eg Why does yellow lichen cover the coastal rocks here? (can’t recall ever seeing that along the NZ coast and being geologists no-one knew the answer to that!)

About an hour along the track we could see Stonehaven. But no looking yet!

What you really need to notice first is the rippled cliffs around it.

Ha ha – you thought it was vertical folding didn’t you! Just goes to show you need to slow down and focus. Because no, that is not folding, that is an indication that this isn’t all hard rock.

The cliffs are a mixture of hard and soft rock, and the soft rock being more susceptible to weathering erodes away leaving rippled hard rock. Sounds kind of cool – is kind of cool!

Thus ends the geology lesson. Now on to the other cool stuff.

Would you like to be buried here?

or have a cropping farm?

or live in a castle on the point?

Maybe like us you would like to enjoy it for an evening and then go out and eat poached locally caught haddock in a lemon hazelnut sauce with your new found friends.

Or simply rest up before the long trip to Africa (or in our case Edinburgh on Saturday).