Capstone 2018: Scotland

On March 22nd, we left the picturesque town of Tobermory on the island of Mull and headed for mainland Scotland. We caught a quick 10 minute ferry from Fishnish (yes we laughed at the name too) to Lochaline before driving toward Fort William northwest from Mull. After crossing Loch Linhe we finally arrived in Fort William, and after a much needed McDonalds break (we are students after all), we quickly picked up groceries and headed for the little houses our adorable accommodation for the next few days. Our next stop was Glen Roy an amazing example of the effects of Quaternary glaciation in Scotland. The most prominent feature the Parallel Roads mark the location of the shorelines of a periglacial ice dammed lake, appearing parallel as the result of the preservation of multiple shorelines due to fluctuating water levels. The periglacial lake was created as glacial ice moved down Ben Nevis (the highest peak in the UK) and upwards into the valley. The majority of glaciation occurred dur...

Day 4: Metasediments, Intrusions, and Fossils May 20, 2018, Island of Mull Hello Geonerds! Today was a very exciting day full of many interesting outcrops, exciting geology, and a bit of rain (but what can you do in Scotland?). We even had an appearance of the Banana Crew in their beautiful yellow suits! Michael and Akuei displaying the latest and greatest in rain suit fashion.   Our first stop was at the Ross of Mull in Ardlanish Bay at a knob looking outcrop sticking out of the beach. The outcrop was a foliated metapelite rich in biotite and quartz. Also present in the rock were small crystals of kyanite and retrograde andalusite, as well as spectacular euhedral tourmaline crystals up to a centimetre in size. The rock was originally metamorphosed to the amphibolite facies, where kyanite is stable, however while temperature and pressure were decreasing it became less stable and converted to andalusite, kyanite's more stable polymorph. This retrograde mineralog...

Tobermory, Isle of Mull (Shantel T., 2018) We began the first day of adventures through the Isle of Mull on May 19th. Departing our place of stay in Tobermory, the largest town on the island, we took to the winding road out to the first stop in Glen More. The site was gabbroic, but this is not any ordinary gabbro site, it is a CROSS BEDDED site! Seeing such a structure adds to the ongoing debate on how the fundamental rock types are defined from one another. A significant depositional environment with strength, speed and depth is required to create cross strata – typically because of wind or water flowing mediums for sedimentary material. BUT! THIS IS IGNEOUS! Igneous material that exhibit cross-bedding suggests the heat and strength of volcanic activity was able to layer within a stratum and at an angle! The material must have “behaved like sedimentary” material typically does, and this, by no means is common as a structure for this rock type. L...

On May 18th the Scotland crew hiked up Conic Hill which is on the border between the Scottish Lowlands and the Highlands. This important distinction is marked by the presence of the Highland Boundary Fault and has been dated to the Ordovician and Middle Devonian period of the Earth's history. The major lithologies in the area are the Old Red Sandstone conglomerates and sandstones to the south east with a wide variety of metamorphic rocks to the north west, including schists, phyllites, and slates. Between the both of these is the Highland Border Complex, a weakly metamorphosed area of sandstones, lava, limestones, mudstones, and conglomerates. Standing on outcrops across Conic Hill we could see the Highland border complex as we were hiking. Seeing these geologic structures in the field really helps connect the theoretical that we study with the practical applications that are out in the world. Some of the students decided to test their limits and hike to the very top o...