| P number: | P521371 |
|---|---|
| Caption: | Rock specimen of red sandstone. Green Heugh, west of Siccar Point, Berwickshire, Scotland. |
| Description: | The sample is a uniform fine to medium-grained sandstone consisting predominantly of quartz grains coated with red hematite, giving an overall strong red-orange colour to the rock. British Geological Survey Petrology Collection sample number EMC3528. Siccar Point is a classic locality in British geology. It is one of several sites known as 'Hutton's Unconformity' where the pioneering 18th century geologist James Hutton recognised the significance of geological time by demonstrating the presence of an angular unconformity between rocks of Upper Old Red Sandstone and Ordovician/Silurian age. James Hutton was a Scottish geologist who originated some of the fundamental principles of modern geology. In his theory of the Origin of the Earth he described the processes of denudation and deposition and suggested that these took place on timescales of millions of years. Hutton's theory was highly controversial and he was accused of atheism. At the end of the great Caledonian mountain building period, Britain was at southern end of a large continental area, in tropical latitudes and just south of the equator. The land was rising and large amounts of sediments were deposited in subsiding basins. The older Lower Old Red Sandstone was deposited first then after a series of upheavals and earth movements rocks such as this red sandstone were deposited by rivers. The rock will be Devonian in age. |
| Date taken: | Sun Dec 01 00:00:00 GMT 2002 |
| Photographer: | McTaggart, F.I. |
| Associate: | T.S. Bain |
| Copyright statement: | NERC |
| Additional information: | EMC3528 |
| Orientation: | Landscape |
| Size: | 252.89 KB; 1000 x 775 pixels; 85 x 66 mm (print at 300 DPI); 265 x 205 mm (screen at 96 DPI); |
| Average Rating: | Not yet rated |
| Categories: | Unsorted Images |
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