GeoLog

Scotland

Imaggeo on Mondays: Cooking crystals in the Earth cauldron

Imaggeo on Mondays: Cooking crystals in the Earth cauldron

This picture shows a 30 micrometer thick rock section of a gabbro from the Rum Layered Intrusion (Scotland). Large clinopyroxene crystals are enclosed in a foliated fine grained groundmass of plagioclase and olivine. The clinopyroxene core crystallized at an early stage, at 1160°C. They were partly molten at 1200°C during successive hot magma injections and …[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: When boulders hitch a ride from glaciers

Imaggeo on Mondays: When boulders hitch a ride from glaciers

Glen More, on the Isle of Mull, Scotland, is a classic locality for studying glacial landforms and sediments. Here, two prominent ice-transported boulders stand guard at the head of the valley, left behind after the Loch Lomond Readvance (Younger Dryas stade), the final pulse of Quaternary glaciation in Scotland. Behind them in the characteristic U-shaped …[Read More]