Upon the shoulders of giants
by morpheus71
Sir Isaac Newton.
Afterglow light from a sunken sun permeates a deep zawn at Hartland Quay. The foreground flowers are Sea Thrift (Armeria maritima)
The rocks of Hartland Quay are the remains of a mountain range.
Sedimentary rocks, as sequences of shales and mudstones were deposited in a shallow sea during the Carboniferous period – around 320 million years ago.
Plate tectonics caused the collision of two super continents with Hartland Quay in the middle. Devon was at the southern margin of a super-continent called Laurasia, which collided with the super-continent Pangaea – to the South. Intense folding can be seen on the main cliffs at Hartland Quay.
The collisions which brought this about are known as the ‘Variscan orogeny’, which took place over about 100 million years.
The event created the Variscan mountain belt, which includes the mountains of Portugal and western Spain, southwest Ireland, Cornwall, Devon, Pembrokeshire, the Gower Peninsula and the Vale of Glamorgan. The Variscan mountains running through southwest England were possibly up to 3,000m high
The orogeny resulted in intrusions and volcanics in Devon and Cornwall – including the granite intrusions that underlie the SW peninsular of the UK (known as the ‘Cornubian batholith’). The batholith is exposed at the surface at several places including Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor.
Very nice shot Phil. It almost looks as though that finger of water is running downhill towards the shore.
Very interesting Geology lesson as well!
regards
Karlo
Thank you very much for your encouraging comments Karlo There was a fair bit of tilt on the camera plane, had to make sure the tripod was really balanced firmly so as to avoid my Kx ending up in the bottom of the zawn! Hartland is a wonderful area to explore, fascinating geology indeed... more photos from this trip to process yet
Superb..I do like the knife-shaped rock
Thanks very much indeed Giulio The knife shaped rock and its seaward lower formation seemed somewhat anthropomorphic, like some kind of dinosaur or sea dragon, setting off for a swim towards the horizon
Look forward to seeing other images from your trip
What a stunning location!
Look forward to seeing other images from your trip
Thanks Tim It's an amazing place indeed Hope to post some more photos on here from that trip over the weekend
A wonderful mix of colours, textures and movement
Thanks very much for your encouraging comments really enjoyed the way things seemed to work together in this image
You've certainly caught the geo-drama (have I invented something there?) - ans as usual a lovely zen inducing atmosphere. Reminds me a little of bow fiddle rock.
Much appreciated Dodge Geo-drama sounds like a convincingly real term, though I have used many portmanteau phrases that others question the validity of
Very nice! Geological history is amazing and to show it is a nice achievement...
Thanks very much leep Its a grand place indeed, some of the other photos I made that day show a sense of the utterly amazing geological forces that have shaped that coastline.
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1418 posts
13 years
Northwich,
Cheshire
Very interesting Geology lesson as well!
regards
Karlo